THE sudden death of their second-term assemblyman Eddie Ng Tien Chee still weighs heavily on many voters in Balakong, a busy town on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

In the May 9 elections, Ng had beaten PAS and MCA candidates by winning 77.5% of the votes, to retain the state seat sandwiched between the congested townships of Cheras and Seri Kembangan.

Yi, who owns a shop directly below Ng’s service centre at Jalan Kasturi 1, said the late assemblyman was a humble and well-loved figure.

“He would raise his hand to say hi every time he saw us. He would sit down to chat with us. He had no airs even though he was a YB (assemblyman),” she said.

The town’s loyalty to DAP is not expected to change in the coming by-election called after Ng’s fatal car accident on July 20.

MCA has announced it is considering running for the seat under its own party logo instead of Barisan Nasional’s.

It’s a decision that has surprised many political observers, who interpret the move as MCA’s attempt to further distance itself from Umno and its recent controversies.

Balakong voters interviewed are not interested at all.

The three customers at Yi’s shop said it did not matter which logo MCA used as the party was just not accepted by voters.

“Does it make a difference? They are still with BN, right?” said an elderly man, adding he was disgusted by reports of the size of Umno president Najib Razak’s wealth.

At Kampung Baru Balakong, half a dozen villagers having a drink after work outside the Hakka Association building said they had no idea who the DAP or MCA’s by-election candidates were, but were certain DAP would win hands down.

“(Ng used to) come to our village every Tuesday. He would attend to all our complaints,” said a street trader who wished to be known as Tan.

“The former (Serdang) MP (Teo) Nie Cheng helped us to solve our (persistent) flood problem a few years ago.

“We used to have to spend a whole day to clean up our homes, and a lot of money to replace destroyed furniture (and household electrical items like the) refrigerator every time it floods.”

Until the political tsunami of 2008, Balakong had been a BN stronghold since 1995 .

It is part of the Serdang parliamentary seat, which was renamed Bangi in the 14th general election.

Tan said DAP had served the people well since it won the seat a decade ago so he saw no reason for the locals to switch their political allegiance.

He said he hoped the new federal government could solve the growing drug and gangsterism problems in Balakong.

“A lot of the (drug addicts and pushers) are youth. It’s worrying. The gangsters don’t dare yet to come to the village but they have harassed businesses outside for protection fees.

Analysts say Balakang is a shoo-in for DAP and that the best MCA can hope for is to reduce the whopping 35,538 majority Ng secured on May 9.

Out of the 61,659 registered voters in Balakong, 61.07% are Chinese, Malay (29.25%) and Indian (8.79%). – July 27, 2018.