Cameron Highlands By Election No Money No Hope For Bn

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A friend and I made a quickie trip to Cameron Highlands yesterday.  To suss out the place before the By Elections on the 6th of January. 

It was also a foodie excursion. Began with pau at Tanjong Malim, tea at Bharat's Tea Shop, lunch at Kumar's in Tanah Rata, excellent durian kampong  [for RM7 a kilo !!] at that pasar pagi in Kea Farm, Brinchang and finally the most disappointing nasi ganja in Ipoh (maybe because we were late, almost everything had finished.)




Above : Yik Mun's super delicious pausBelow : Mountain chi energy at Bharat's Tea Shop


When we reached Ringlet the campaign banners and flags appeared. Things are clearer now - it is just BN versus Pakatan.  PAS has chickened out - they do not stand a chance.



Then we noticed something strange. While there were pictures of Tun Dr Mahathir and the Pakatan candidate M Manogaran everywhere [samples below] there was NOT A SINGLE PICTURE of the BN candidate - the ex cop, something.  





All the way from Ringlet to Tanah Rata to Terla to Brinchang towards Kg Raja there was NOT  A SINGLE PICTURE of the BN candidate. No one knows what he looks like.
Maybe the BN candidate is insanely cross eyed and they are embarrassed about him. Or maybe he walks around with a blowpipe and they are embarrassed about that.  Or maybe he is both cross eyed and does walk around with a blow pipe. 

UMNO / BN has no money. Pasal apa Najib tak mahu bagi duit kat kempen pilihanraya Cameron Highlands? Apalah kedekut mabuk? Bagilah TWENTY MILLION pun cukup.

Or maybe the local Ketua Bahagian ran away with the posters and banners money to kahwin dua or something like that. Malaysia Boleh. 


No pictures of Johnny Depp with a blow pipe
Then when we were at the pasar pagi Kea Farm in Brinchang we ran into this guy [below here].  This is Wong Seng Yee, the independent candidate for the Cameron Highlands by-election.





Here is Bernama about Wong Seng Yee:

Traders at Kea Farm taken by surprise by man in farmer’s hat, cangkulaffable man, fully engaged,  regular laughter cangkul his symbol, synonymous with farming community Wong, 41, holds Master’s Degree in Horticultural Science from Nebraska, US.Kea Farm needs to be beautified, have more stalls, wider car park for crowdsMy comments :

Wong Seng Yee says he is running because he is quite sure that the real grouses and the real needs of a significant portion of the Camerons voters will not be heard. He wants to voice out some of those issues and if even he does not win, he hopes the government [either State BN government or the Pakatan Federal government] will listen to what he has to say.

Wong Seng Yee and the Malay guy who sold us durians at RM7 a kilo both said the same thing - whether BN or Pakatan there has been no real change. Things are pretty much the same. I hope Tun Dr Mahathir will read this. I hear this a lot Tun. All over the country. 

Ok here are some numbers.    Bernama says that   "In GE14, BN's Sivarraajh won Camerons with 10,307 votes, beating Manogaran with 9,710 votes".    That was a very narrow margin of 597 votes - of course with vote buying thrown in.

Cameron Highlands is in Pahang - which is controlled by the BN / UMNO.

The Camerons community is very largely farming and hotel tourism. The farmers and hotel operators are largely Chinese and Indians.  Both industries are largely controlled or 'dependent' on the State government in Kuantan which is a BN / UMNO gomen. TOL land issues, development approvals, road approvals etc are all State matters. They have to work with the BN / UMNO gomen. 

If there is a Pakatan win in Camerons will the Indian and Chinese farmers and hotel and restaurant operators be "punished" by the UMNO State gomen? It is a real possibility. 

Up till now it is difficult to call the Camerons By Elections. Of course with the BN candidate's picture not seen anywhere, Pakatan's Manogaran does stand a good chance.

Malays make up about 30 percent of Camerons people. Chinese also make up about the same number while the Indians and Orang Aslis contribute 20 percent each.

The Indians will be unhappy that the Elections Court snatched away the victory of the previous MIC candidate Sivarajjh. It was "their" winning Indian candidate. However now another Indian, Manogaran running under Pakatan, may dampen this pro Indian sentiment.  

Considering their total dependence on the BN State gomen for land matters [TOL lands, opening new farming lands etc]  I think the Chinese farmers will still vote for the BN.  Chinese folks are always super practical.

The Malay vote is already split between the BN and the Pakatan. Hadi has promised to paint an already green Camera Highlands even greener.  In all of the Cameron Highlands' being a farming and horticultural wonderland [horticulture - the art or practice of garden cultivation and management], there is not one Malay run vegetable farm, flower garden or strawberry farm. Not one. So Hadi will be spraying his different type of manure. It will be industrial strength bullshit.

The big unknown will be the Orang Asli.  Who will they vote for?  The absence of the BN candidate's picture [he is an Orang Asli] will cost the BN plenty of Orang Asli votes. 

If they plaster his picture everywhere will the Malays vote for an Orang Asli? As Manogaran said the Malays do not even buy kuih from Orang Asli. But I did not see any Orang Asli kuih sellers. 

Who can talk to the Orang Asli? The Pakatan needs its Orang Asli expert - YB Waythamoorthy, the Minister of National Unity.  Waythamoorthy should be permanently parked in the Camerons.

From Kedah to Kelantan, Terengganu, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Johor, Sarawak and Sabah we have beautiful,  jungle clad highlands where the temperature is cool and suitable for farming and horticulture.  But Cameron Highlands has already established itself as a really world class farming, horticultural and tourist site. A hundred years' effort and investment has already gone into making the Camerons what it is today.  I believe the Camerons has a much larger and a really world class potential.  

Tapi yang tanam sayur, bunga dan strawberry semua Cina. 
Yang jaga ladang teh semua India. 
Peduli apa kita?

Much more can be done in the Camerons. 

a.  There really needs to be a highway [or at least a dual carriage way] running from Tapah through Camerons until Kampong Raja. 

b.  There must be a horticultural university established in the Camerons. A  Cameron Highlands University of Horticultural Science which must interact closely with the farmers and add value to the farming technology.  The Camerons is short of water and the farmers - on their own - have become expert in rain water harvesting and drip irrigation. This is a world class environment for highland farming and flower gardens.

c.  The tourism potential in Cameroin Highlands is now kucar kacir, haphazard and without any proper direction or clue.  Ministry of Tourism officials say that there is now a 'keretapi' in charge of tourism in Malaysia. Keretapi tracks are parralel and never come to a convergence anywhere. 

d. Farmers suffer the threat of uncertainty  in land tenure.  Farming land is often under TOL with THREE year leases.  Hence farmers cannot plan long term investment. Instead they overdose their crops with chemical fertilisers and chemical pesticides to maximise their yields before the THREE year TOL lease is up. Hence Camerons vegetables sometimes get rejected by major markets like Singapore.  These are all small issues that should have been handled FIFTY years ago. 

Tapi nanti Cina jadi lagi kaya.
Nanti susah 'ambil duit' daripada Cina.
Peduli apa kita.

No matter who wins in the Cameron Highlands, we are NOT sorting things out in a 21st century manner.  There is such huge potential in the Camerons.  We have to set aside irrational fears and work towards the 21st century.Posted by Syed Akbar Ali 

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