How MCA won the fisherfolk over

THERE was another hour before the polling station closed but a Chinese hawker in Bagan Sungai Besar fishing village was sure of a Barisan Nasional victory.

His reasoning is simple – the fishermen need to make a living.

The fishing village comes under the Bagan Sungai Besar stream where more than 98% of voters are Chinese.

Days before the polling, two fishermen made headlines when the Government got them released from an Indonesian jail, where they had been held for trespassing into the neighbouring country’s waters.

A day before polling, 28 fishermen got approvals from the Home Ministry to hire foreign workers.

This was an issue plaguing them for more than three decades.

While Barisan’s detractors may dismiss both instances as vote buying, nobody can deny the hope it brought to the fishing industry, one of the two sources of livelihoods for the Chinese community there. The other is padi planting.

Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai (pic) had also pledged to return to help them to resolve their problems in his capacity as the MCA president and Transport Minister.

Liow, who has been going around Sekinchan and the Bagan Sungai Besar fishing village where almost all the 13,000-plus Chinese voters in the Sungai Besar constituency are from, is no stranger to them by now.

He listened to what they told him, found ways to help, and most of all, assured them that he would be there for them after the election.

The Barisan victory is more meaningful for MCA because it saw a return of Chinese votes.

MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon said more than 35% of the Chinese gave their votes to Barisan, a far cry from the 12% in the 2013 general election.

He pointed out that slightly more than 60% of the total Chinese voters turned out yesterday.

Chong, who took charge of the party’s campaign, said there was a need to restrategise and that more work had to be done before the next general election, due in less than two years’ time.

He reckoned that recognising the constituents’ real problems and helping them was one of the factors that helped win back votes.

Apart from that, the Chinese had also realised the danger of supporting PAS and its splinter party Amanah with PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang bent on imposing his Islamist laws.

Amanah president Mohammad Sabu or Mat Sabu may have to think twice the next times if he assumes the Chinese will buy any promise on prosperity and happiness.

His assurance that Islamic laws guarantees happiness and prosperity only frightened away the Chinese.

In the last general election, they threw their support behind PAS unconditionally when DAP assured them that PAS was only out to create a welfare state and not Islamic state or hudud.

But there are certainly more issues that will determine the rakyat’s voting pattern, especially in the next general election.

The victory in this by-election is perhaps another wake up call to the ruling coalition and opposition alike. They cannot take the people’s support for granted.