RETIRED lorry driver Abdul Rahim Naruddin watched as his three grandchildren played in a plastic pool at his single-storey house in Kampung Sungai Kandis, Selangor. A narrow road separates his home from a row of newly developed double-storey houses.

He drew on his kretek cigarette as he explained how pro-Barisan Nasional voters in the largely Malay state seat of Sungai Kandis feel about the by-election on August 4.

Apart from the villagers selling their land to small developers, not much had changed in Kampung Sungai Kandis, whether it was ruled by Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Harapan, said the 55-year-old father of four.

“Things have been pretty much the same here,” said Rahim. “The only new feature here is a water lock that was put in a few years back to stop the flooding.”

Though just five minutes away from the busy Lebuhraya Kemuning-Shah Alam (LKSA), the village looks like a place time left behind, surrounded by oil palm smallholdings and a few illegal factories. The tallest buildings on the narrow Jalan Sg Kandis are Sekolah Rendah Agama Sungai Kandis and Masjid Al-Muhsinin.

The primary school here was one of 20 polling stations for the N49 Sungai Kandis seat in the last election. It was also one of the few polling stations which received more votes for BN than PH, PAS and Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) candidates.

Rahim had campaigned for BN’s Kamaruzzaman Johari in the May 9 general election.

The seat was won by PKR’s Shuhaimie Shafiei who beat Kamaruzzaman, his closest rival, by 12,480 votes.

But at Rahim’s polling station, Kamaruzzaman had won 687 (38%) of the 1,797 votes cast there, compared with Shuhaimie’s 615 (34%). PAS’ Mohd Yusof Abdullah had 481 votes (26.7%) while PRM’s Hanafiah Husin won one vote.

“Kamaruzzaman was a local boy,” said Rahim, who had helped BN campaign because the candidate was a distant relative. 

“But I, like most of the people here, am more inclined towards PAS,” he said, pointing to the BN and PAS flags flying above his house. 

PAS will not be contesting in the by-election

From Sri Andalas to Sungai Kandis

Prior to GE14, there was no Sungai Kandis seat. The old name for the seat was Sri Andalas, which was twice won by PKR’s Xavier Jayakumar. Sri Andalas was a mixed seat then with 39% Malay, 24% Chinese and 35% Indians.

But as BN eyed a comeback in the country’s richest state, Sri Andalas became Sungai Kandis after the redelineation exercise that affected some 18 parliament seats in Selangor.

The mixed seat became a 70% Malay seat and was among the seats BN expected to reclaim. In the redelineation exercise, Chinese voters in the south of the seat were cut out to form the Sentosa seat.

As such, N49 resembles a jagged number two within the Kota Raja parliamentary constituency. 

From Jalan Sg Kandis (which comes under Klang), N49 joins Jalan Kebun to the east and continues southwards to Section 34 of Shah Alam before veering back to Kg Bukit Naga and Bandar Puteri Klang.

N49 has three Javanese areas – Kg Jawa, Bukit Jati and Jalan Kebun. Legend has it that a Javanese warrior named Wak Kairan founded Kg Jawa some 160 years ago.

Ilham Centre director Hisomuddin Bakar said out of the 20 polling stations in the last elections, 11 were Malay-majority and the rest mixed.

But other than Rahim’s village of Kampung Sungai Kandis, he said, BN would not win at the other stations. 

“BN lost badly in the non-Malay areas such as Taman Seri Andalas and Bandar Puteri Klang but did not make up for it in the Malay stations,” said the political pollster.

But for Rahim, whether it’s Sri Andalas or Sungai Kandis, BN or Pakatan, life is pretty much unchanged.

“I haven’t decided yet. And since neither Kamaruzzaman or PAS are contesting, I’m free to choose again. So, we’ll see what the heart says on August 4,” he said. – July 21, 2018.