ROHANA (not her real name) sells kuih in her kampung in Pekan and the rise in the price of sugar and cooking oil has eaten away at her profit margin.
“I can’t raise prices because then people in my kampung will not buy my kuih.
“I make sardine buns too, but now a tin of sardines costs RM11 compared to RM7.50 over a year ago.
“Prices of everything have gone up by 30% to 40% and I am really feeling it,” says Rohana, a Wanita Umno member in her late 40s who was sitting with her friends on the carpeted ground floor of PWTC in front of a big screen TV to follow the speeches at the Umno general assembly.
Her friend Siti is a housewife who depends on her ex-serviceman husband’s monthly pension to get by.
Her oldest child is studying to be a nurse while her other four children are still in school and the family is finding it tough to stretch their ringgit.
“People are upset with the government because food prices have gone up. You people with higher income won’t feel it ... but for us, when the price of cooking oil goes up by a bit, we feel it; and when the price of sugar goes up even by just a little, we feel it too.
“I know the GST is good for the country as it eases the government’s burden, but it is burdening everyday folks like me.
“I ate a plate of nasi goreng just now and I had to pay GST even for that. People are really feeling the pressure from the rising cost of living.
“Yes, we receive BR1M, but we end up paying out more than what we get from BR1M because of the GST,” she says.
As frustrated as Rohana and Siti are over the rising costs of food and essentials, these two women are still diehard Umno loyalists.
They say that they and their family will still vote for Umno “dulu, kini dan selama-lamanya (then, now and forever more)” because Umno is in their blood.
But they are concerned about other villagers who do not feel the same way, and who are so upset with the government over the rising prices that they are threatening not to come out to vote in the next general election.
“So we are hoping the government will listen and bring prices down to what they used to be a year back. Kesian rakyat!” says Siti.
Speaking at the Umno general assembly, Maran Umno deputy chief Datuk Shahaniza Shamsuddin spelt out how Felda settlers have had to wait for three to four weeks to get paid and sometimes, up to one-and-a-half months.
She says previously the settlers used to get paid every two weeks so this late payment is getting them miffed.
Shahniza is the assemblyman for Kuala Sentul Pahang and 80% of her electorate are Felda settlers.
Her state seat falls under the Maran parliamentary constituency, of which her area contributed almost 50% of the majority votes for Barisan. So her fear is that the anger over the late payment could make these traditional Barisan Nasional voters turn the other way when casting their votes.
This is something that Barisan cannot afford to neglect or overlook not just in Maran, but country-wide.
Shahaniza says there are 54 parliament seats with Felda settlers in the country and Barisan won 48 of these seats in the last general election.
“For the opposition to get a simple majority in Parliament, they only need another 23 seats. What if they manipulate and capitalise on this problem in Felda?
“I worry that if the problem of late payment is not solved, this might win them the 23 parliament seats they need!”
In an interview with The Star, Shahaniza says she has nothing personal against Felda and is on very good terms with the Felda chairman.
“I don’t blame Felda 100% because I know that the global economy is contributing to the problem.
“But Felda has to find ways to rectify its cash flow. I don’t know how, but they have to find a solution now. There is no room for excuses. It is serious because this is a nationwide issue.”
At the end of last year’s Umno general assembly, Shahaniza left the hall not feeling good because the atmosphere, body language and vibe between party president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and then deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was highly charged and tensed over their differences on the 1MDB issue.
Much has changed since.
Muhyiddin was suspended and subsequently sacked from Umno for being openly critical of the party president. The former deputy Prime Minister has gone to set up another party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), of which he is the president.
And then Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, who was also critical of Najib and the 1MDB issue, was suspended for alleged misconduct. He quit Umno and has taken over Parti Warisan Sabah and is now president of that Sabah-based multi-racial party.
Both these parties are expected to work together with other opposition parties to try and defeat Barisan in the coming general election.
Shahaniza feels Umno members can breathe a bit easier after these two leaders left as it allows members to put the top-level party feud behind them and move on.
“So I see the mood during this Umno assembly is stronger as members still believe in the party.
“The party is more important than individuals. We have the cream still with us.”
But she sees that the next general election is going to be tough, more so because of the rising price of goods.
“We cannot tell people this is the world economy and that is how it is. We need to minimise the impact on their lives,” she adds.
Former Umno president and prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was one of the first to quit the party over the 1MDB issue.
Shahaniza says that while Dr Mahathir still has influence, it is the bread-and-butter issues that are more important to people than 1MDB and everything else.
“Even if they don’t believe what we are saying on 1MDB, it wouldn’t matter to them if their lives are comfortable and they are able to provide a decent life for themselves and their children.
“People are really not bothered about politics. They are concerned about making ends meet and we have to find ways to help them.”
For Shahaniza, who was a former syariah lawyer, she is comfortable with Umno working with PAS on issues like amending the syariah law (RUU355) for the sake of Muslim unity and strengthening the syariah court.
To her, it is not impossible for Umno and PAS to form a coalition government in the future.
In the last election, Shahaniza won the state seat in a straight fight against a PKR candidate.
At that time, PAS, DAP and PKR were together in Pakatan Rakyat, so the PKR candidate relied on the PAS election machinery and its operations room to contest.
But now that Pakatan Rakyat no longer exists and PAS and DAP are not working together, Shahaniza believes this helps Umno.
“If PAS contests in my seat, it will be a three-cornered fight. That is good for me and Umno (because the opposition votes will be split between PAS and PKR).”
Shahaniza was a pioneer member of Puteri Umno which was set up when Dr Mahathir was the party president.
The Puteri girls were very close to him because he was a father figure, and someone whom they respected, loved and looked up to. So it has been hard for them to stomach Dr Mahathir joining forces with the opposition.
Likening what has happened between Dr Mahathir and Najib to a divorce, Shahaniza says, the children would have to choose between the father or mother.
“You love both, but you have to choose.”
She says she felt “bad, sad and betrayed” seeing Dr Mahathir standing together with DAP’s Lim Kit Siang against Umno.
“If my father did something wrong, I cannot follow him. I must follow my mother.
“Deep inside the child’s heart, we want our parents to be together again. But the ‘father’ has taken another wife (DAP) and it is a woman that we don’t even like!”
Shahaniza says while she feels better at this Umno assembly compared to last year’s, she is “still pained by her ‘parents’ divorce’ but life must go on.”
For Beaufort Umno deputy chief Mohd Fadzelee Lee Abdullah, it is good that the party general assembly has focused on unity and strengthening the party to face the coming general election.
He says this is important and relevant for Sabah because of the “Shafie Apdal factor”.
“He was the Umno vice-president for three terms. It was the first time that a Sabahan was elected as the vice-president so that was significant for us. And we can’t deny that Umno members felt hurt when the party suspended Shafie.
“But when he chose to leave Umno on his own accord without using party channels to make his case and appeal against his suspension, and then set up his party, our sympathy towards him lessened.”
Mohd Fadzelee acknowledges that Shafie still wields some influence in Semporna and other parts of Sabah and this should not be taken lightly by Sabah Umno.
“Warisan will pose some challenge for Barisan in Sabah. We cannot dismiss the party and say it is not strong because it is new. We have a democratic system in the country and it is up to the voters to make their pick during elections.”
Mohd Fadzelee says historically for Sabah when Datuk Lajim Ukin left Umno and joined PKR, although he did not win the Beaufort parliament seat in the last election, Lajim nonetheless managed to win a state seat.
“So this might happen in Semporna too if Shafie contests both a parliament and a state seat; he might be able to win one. We cannot brush off this possibility.”
Mohd Fadzelee says that what works in Barisan’s favour in Sabah is the Pan Borneo highway that the Federal Government is building, which the people are happy with.
He also points out that in the early years after Independence, Sabah had only 27 state seats, and over the years, this kept increasing and currently there are 73 state seats.
Having so many state seats helps, he says, because it brings more focus and development to each of the areas, which are still lagging when compared to Peninsular Malaysia.
As for Umno, he says, that while Shafie is no longer in the party, there are five other Sabahans who sit in the party’s supreme council (Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin, Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin and Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak).
“So they can give voice to the concerns of Sabahans and help push things through.”
As for Johor, Segamat Umno division chief Zahari Sarip says because of what happened, Muhyiddin – being a Johorean and a former Umno deputy president and former deputy Prime Minister – would cause some impact in the state.
“But I don’t think it will be anything like what we saw with (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim in Penang when he was sacked as deputy prime minister and deputy president (in 1998).”
For Zahari, Johor is still a strong fortress for Umno, “but we cannot be complacent.”
“We have to take the Muhyiddin issue as a challenge to do even better.”
He says for kampung folk, what is important is to focus on what the Johor state government is doing to help the people.
“We have to be on the look out because in politics, anything can happen. So we have to approach and interact with our voters so that they will tell us openly what they are feeling inside.
“What we worry about is if they keep it all bottled up inside and only show their dissatisfaction through the ballot box.”
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
