FOR as long as Malaysians can remember, Johor has been synonymous with Umno/Barisan Nasional.

Not anymore, it appears. The southern state may be the birth place of the country’s most famous political party but the umbilical cord has been severed with a new poll showing that more than half of Johoreans are agreeable to new faces running the state.

In a poll conducted by the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research last month, 51% of 1,007 Johoreans polled said they would give other parties a chance to administer the state.

Chinese voters were the most receptive to change at 69% followed by Indians (50%) and Malays (39%).

The sentiment also seemed to be more popular among Johoreans in the higher income brackets, with those earning RM4,000-RM6,999 at 67% and RM7,000 and above at 65%.

Urban and rural voters were evenly split on this.

The poll showed that while Johoreans were supportive of Menteri Besar Khaled Nordin, they were dissatisfied with the cost of living and the manner in which the country was governed.

In short, their unhappiness at the state of the country and economy was priming them for government at state level by parties other than Umno/BN.

The opposition tripled their number of state seats from six to 18 in the 13th general election (GE13). DAP was the biggest winner, taking 13 state seats from BN component party MCA. 

In the next elections, Bersatu will contest 18 state seats, 16 which are held by Umno, while DAP will stand in 14 seats. PKR and Amanah will each contest a dozen seats in the 56-seat state assembly.

Open to change 

At Stulang Baru, next to Kg Melayu Majidee, warung such as Sebulong Corner have started to host DAP events.

“We had the Stulang assemblyman Andrew (Chen Kah Eng) here last week to distribute mandarin oranges and everything went well,”  Sebulong Corner proprietor Roslan Adan.

Roslan, who took over the stall founded 35 years ago by his father, said he wanted to let the people listen to the other side of the story.

“For years, we have only been getting one side of the stories. So I decided to give the opposition a chance to meet with the local residents here,” said Roslan.

He said all types of people visited his warung, which was open to 7am to 11am daily. Business has not been affected by his lending of the stall to opposition politicians as a platform.

“Besides villagers, I get government servants and office workers who come here every day and they are more open than people realise.”

Four men seated at a table turned out to be long-time PAS member Rosli Kemim and retired navy man Abdul Wahab Abdullah, who were with two Umno members.

Rosli, who has 12 children and earns less than RM3,000 a month, said generally Malays were still afraid of DAP because of the media portrayal of them as being anti-Islam and Chinese chauvinists.

“But this is an urban area and we get better (access to) information by reading the different news sites. So we are different.”

Malays don’t need Umno

Rosli said the notion that only Malay leaders could protect Malays was wrong.

“This area has many Malay squatters who have been living here for close to 50 years, but what has the Johor Baru MP Shahrir Samad done for them? Despite his being our MP for seven terms now, these squatters still don’t have land titles.

The oldest man at the table, Wahab, 78, said Umno thought Malays needed the party to survive.

“But it is Umno that needs Malays to survive,” said the former Umno Stulang Baru branch secretary.

Wahab, who joined Umno in 1956, said he too was fed up with the current system where there were no checks and balances.

“I started campaigning for Shahrir when he contested the JB seat in 1979 and even followed him into Semangat 46 but I won’t vote for him anymore. He’s still my friend but his party is in a bad shape and the country needs change,” said Wahab.

In the survey, 21% of Johoreans said Pakatan Harapan was capable of protecting Malay and non-Malay interests whil 20% said the coalition has experienced leaders.

The other Umno member, who declined to be named, said he would no longer vote for Umno because of the high cost of living and allegations of corruption surrounding the party. – February 24, 2018.