DESPITE having lived in the same Malay village in Johor Baru for close to four decades, Azif Ishak and Ahmade Mohd Din never found any reason to be particularly close.

But the upheaval in Umno that led to the setting up of Bersatu by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin drew the two men togehter.

The first time the two men had a serious conversation was when Ahmade approached Azif, 62, to ask if he would open his house as a venue for opposition programmes.

Ahmade, 51, said he had just come back from the first ceramah by Muhyiddin and Dr Mahathir in Bukit Pasir, Muar on October 16, 2016, after the former was sacked from Umno.

Azif has a large, 8,000-square-foot plot of land that Ahmade thought would be the perfect venue.

“Although I didn’t know Azif at all then, I just came over and asked him if he was willing to let Bersatu use his place,” said the chatty, stocky man.

“This spot has been vacant for a while,” said Azif, resting on a hammock in front of a painting of Dr Mahathir on a lazy afternoon.

“So, when Ahmade asked me, I agreed immediately,” he said.

Both men have lived in Kg Dato Sulaiman Menteri (KDSM), one of the last Malay villages in JB, for close to 40 years, and had even lived in Singapore at one point in their lives.

Azif, a soft-spoken lanky man, worked on oil rigs as a safety consultant, while Ahmade owned a bike repair shop before becoming a taxi driver and finally a personal assistant for a consultant at Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor.

Prior to the conversation they had in 2016, both former Umno members barely spoke to one another.

“We have seen each other at the mosque and kampung kenduris but we hardly spoke,” said Ahmade, who now comes over often to his friend’s gazebo.

Opposition presence in a BN village

Ahmade said hosting opposition events in the Barisan Nasional stronghold village, which comes under the Kampong Melayu Majedee 1 (KMM1) voting station, is unprecedented.

“This is a breakthrough for them as the opposition has never been able to come here. Even when the Stulang seat was held by MCA, they never got to come here as Barisan Nasional wanted them to service only Chinese voters. This area is 100% Malay,” said Ahmade.

KMM1 was one of 24 of the 40 polling stations won by BN’s Johor Baru MP Shahrir Samad in the 2013 elections.

In that election, Shahrir won KMM1 with 2,095 votes (82.9%) against PKR candidate Md Hashim Hussein, who took 412 votes (16.3%).

Shahrir’s win in KMM1 was reflective of the overall support he received from Malay voters in Johor Baru.

In the last elections, the seat consisted of 51% Malay, 43% Chinese and 5% Indian voters. Overall, the seven-term lawmaker Shahrir polled 44,509 votes to Md Hashim’s 34,014 votes.

The Johor Baru constituency’s two state seats are Stulang and Tanjong Puteri.

“Although, we are both Bersatu members and there are no Bersatu candidates here, we don’t mind hosting the component parties. Never before can you see a DAP flag in a 100% Malay village,” said Azif.

He said his bond with Ahmade was strengthened by their resolve to be the first people in the village to be responsible to bring change to the government.

Asked if he received flak from other villagers for opening his house to the opposition, a defiant Azif said: “My house is on Jalan Bunga Raya. And now I have Bunga Raya flags (Beratu’s logo) and some rockets (DAP’s logo) too.”

“So, what’s wrong with that?” – February 25, 2018.