SALEM Along was a Barisan Nasional supporter in the 14th general election. But in the Cameron Highlands by-election, the 50-year-old intends to vote Pakatan Harapan and hopes to get more of his friends and neighbours from the Orang Asli settlement of Pos Betau to do the same.

“BN gave us this settlement and the plantations around here. But over the years, the economy has been bad and we are feeling squeezed.

“We have to find a way to improve things and that is why we have to choose a party that can help us, we have to choose PH,” said the rubber tapper.

Salem is one of the thousands of voters from the Semai tribe who are being courted fervently by PH in the hopes that it can wrest the Cameron Highlands seat.

PH’s Muhammad Azmi Abdullah, an official in charge of the coalition’s campaign in the Jelai state constituency where Pos Betau is located, is optimistic that PH can snare 30% of the Orang Asli votes in the area.

This 30% target is what PH needs if it hopes to win Cameron Highlands, according to analysis by think-tank the Ilham Centre.

“Compared to GE14, the Orang Asli were not as brave to participate in events organised by PH. But today, I see many coming out, so it is an optimistic sign,” said Azmi, commenting on the youngsters of Pos Betau coming out in droves for a PH-organised football match.

In the last general election, PH captured an average of only 10.1 % of votes in Orang Asli-majority polling districts.

“The benefit of PH is that as a government, it can promote policies that will help the Malays and Orang Asli, which could then gain their confidence,” said Ilham Centre’s executive director Azlan Zainal.

Azmi said as of yesterday, PH had increased its support among the Orang Asli to about 26%.

“So now we’re going all out to push it up further,” said Azmi, who is also Cameron Highlands Bersatu division secretary.

Crucial support

According to data from PH’s Dr Ong Kian Ming, there are nine Orang Asli-majority polling districts in the constituency. Some of the biggest are Pos Betau and Pos Sinderut in Jelai, both of which have more than 1,000 votes.

With two days of campaigning left, both coalitions are pulling out all stops to persuade as many Semai to their side. The Orang Asli are one of two critical voting blocs. The other is PAS supporters.

The Malay, Chinese and Indian votes at 33.7%, 29.5% and 14.9% % of the total votes in Cameron Highlands have all been mostly locked up by the two coalitions.

This was admitted by BN leaders, such as Cameron Highlands BN election chairman Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail.

“The Malay vote is solidly behind us but we are worried about the Orang Asli vote. PH is aggressively going after the Orang Asli because that is the only way they know they can win,” Wan Rosdy said in a speech on Tuesday.

Whereas in Tanah Rata, which is one of the two state constituencies in Cameron Highlands, PH is confident that it can maintain the same level of support among Chinese and Indian voters.

BN has not been resting on its laurels either and has set up camp in all nine of the Orang Asli settlements and the coalition still has a place in the hearts of the older folk.

“If BN continued to rule, there would be so much more they could implement,” said Ahmad Selalu, a tok batin in Pos Betau.

Sentiment towards PH could also take a hit as the federal government has been accused of cancelling projects green-lit by BN before it lost power in GE14.

“PH has run the country for eight months but we do not see any benefit for the Orang Asli. I say this because a road project was approved for us, from Pos Betau to Pos Lenggang,” said Ahmad.

“After the GE14, they stopped the project and this is how they treat us. If they really want to help us, they should continue what the previous government started.” – January 24, 2019.