PETALING JAYA: Orang Asli and young residents, two key voting blocs in the Nenggiri by-election, have revealed who they will support: the candidate who will not only create jobs but also travel to the most remote areas of the constituency to meet with them.
They said these were their demands to the rival coalitions, who have only three days left to canvass for votes in the sprawling state seat in Kelantan that is almost twice the size of Melaka.
Some of the Orang Asli from the Temiar tribe said some of their elected representatives rarely visited the community once they were elected.
The Orang Asli community could contribute some 2,000 votes, while 61% of all voters in the constituency, or 12,387, are aged between 18 and 39.
Youth voters, meanwhile, said a lack of jobs is forcing many of them to leave the Gua Musang district in search of better opportunities, even though they would have preferred to stay.
Barisan Nasional is vying to recapture the Nenggiri state seat from Perikatan Nasional in the Aug 17 by-election.
Barisan has fielded businessman Mohd Azmawi Fikri Abdul Ghani against Perikatan Nasional’s Mohd Rizwadi Ismail, a coordinator for state religious teachers.
Dendi Abdullah, a resident of Pos Simpor, a Temiar settlement in the constituency, said the community would choose the candidate who is more willing to make the difficult journey to meet them on a regular basis.
“The Temiar tribe in the interior is disappointed with the previous representative’s lack of engagement. Our previous rep never visited our village, even though Pos Simpor is in the Nenggiri state constituency,” Dendi told Bernama recently.
“We have never had the opportunity to discuss with him the problems we are facing in the interior and this lack of communication has been a great concern for us,” he said.
Dendi said the community has had problems with loggers who encroached on their native ancestral lands but did not have a channel to air these complaints to their state representative.
An Orang Asli leader in another settlement, Pos Gob, said the community often had to rely on the federal-level Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) to deal with their problems.
“We’ve had no contact with our former assemblyman and we feel neglected. Despite our remote location, there is no excuse for this lack of engagement,” said Pos Gob Kampung Tembaga chief Elan Pedik.
Other state reps in the past were able to visit the communities regularly, said Elan, thus proving that the settlements’ remoteness was not an obstacle.
Young voters, meanwhile, are looking at which coalition has the best plans for generating favourable jobs in the constituency, where the economy centres mostly around farming and growing commodities such as rubber and palm oil.
“In this village, many young people are self-employed and prefer not to migrate elsewhere,” said Kampung Sungai Asap trader Rahaziani Abdul Ghani.
“I believe setting up agricultural or manufacturing factories in this area is crucial to attracting them to work locally, prevent unemployment and empower them to be self-reliant,” she said.
Construction worker Muhammad Aisar Aniq Suhaimi suggested that more technical and vocational courses be offered in their area, as many of his friends are interested in repairing motorcycles and electrical appliances such as washing machines or televisions.
Aisar from Kampung Sungai Asap said “exposing young people to such classes or skill courses actually helps them to increase their knowledge and could even allow them to open their own shops.”
“This way, more young people in the surrounding areas will have the opportunity to find employment,” he said.
