A lawyer chronicles her adventures as a political campaigner for Parti Keadilan Rakyat in the Hulu-Selangor by-election – taking place right now as you are reading this.
(Day 1): Armour, Shield, & Sword
(Day 4): Restless & Ruminating
(Day 5): Cruising the Sleepy Hollow
Day (6): Of Hand Kissing and Drinking
Day 9: In the Hands of Hulu Selangorians
The campaign has ended. We have done all we can and now leave it to Hulu Selangorians. Let me tell you of my day.
The last day of campaigning was the most eventful day, for me. We helped set up a luncheon ceramah at Kampung Padang. The guests were DSAI, Nurul Izzah, Azmin Ali, and Amiruddin Shaari. It was scorching hot and humid. All of us were dripping in sweat. The narrow road that could hardly fit two vehicles at the same time was filled with residents. The trend with these residents, I found out, was that the husbands will be working in the Klang Valley. When probed for the reason, was that there were no job opportunities in Hulu Selangor. Something Zaid Ibrahim/P. Kamalanathan should think about?
We did not stay long. We headed to the plantation, particularly Felda Soeharto shortly after the luncheon started. It felt like going to the other end of the world. The drive took ages! Hulu Selangor is huge. The Ampang Keadilan branch was holding a family day function and later at night, a concert. Felda Soeharto is very secluded. The land is vast, but the houses small. The youngsters were riding around in motorcycles. We spoke to a Kak Ana (not her real name) and I quote her, “Bagi air free, belajar free, tapi jangan kahwin free,” when telling her of the free water given by the Selangor Government.
Three cars convoyed and the car who led us had a huge PKR flag fixed to the car and whenever another car with PKR flags pass by, they will either honk or flash their lights despite not knowing them.
Remember the debate DSAI had invited our prime minister to? As expected, Mr. PM did not show up at the Kuala Kubu Bahru mini stadium. He was at Bukit Beruntung holding the finale ceramah, which I went to check out. Traffic heading towards the Barisan ceramah was very heavy. It was held at the parking lot of the low cost flats. The big guns came – Mr. and Mrs. PM, Mr. DPM, Tun Mahathir, Ong Tee Keat, and of course P. Kamalanathan was there. I did not stay long, because the end of my campaign is where I belong. So I had only managed to hear two youths, one from MIC and one from MCA speak. The crowd was a racially mixed crowd. There was another Pakatan ceramah nearby because DSAI had driven past right in front of the Barisan ceramah and waved. Maybe the traffic was also contributed by the people who wanted to attend the Pakatan ceramah or maybe I am just trying to console myself.
The big shots of Pakatan were also there. YB Lim Kit Siang, DSAI, Azmin Ali, Zaid Ibrahim, Tok Guru Nik Aziz, Khalid Ibrahim, and even Karpal Singh were there at the debate turned ceramah. YB Lim Kit Siang came in a kapchai because of the traffic and also the huge congregation there.
I know Lady Baba and her crew were around, wanting to shoot the finale episode of the Hulu Selangor elections. You know how she looks like, she and her big fluorescent pink wig. Very surprisingly disappointing, the people found her wig offensive and wanted her out. I thought they were very rude to them and really, if we can accept that Zaid Ibrahim has drank before, why can’t we accept a red haired chick? A PKR security guard was courteous and tried his best to explain how this is not the right place for something like that. Well, no one is perfect and definitely no political party is perfect, you just choose the one you feel is the lesser evil, or it just means more work need to be done.
Mak Nah and Surya (not their real names) who are locals I met at the Pakatan ceramah told me that they hoped we win. They told me that Pakatan ceramah has more attendees but they are not sure as to who will win tomorrow. Anyhow, the predicting stops now. We will know soon.
You’ve seen the crowd at both camps, what do you think?
The campaign stops now and the votes come in. Hulu Selangorians, do fulfil your duty and cast your vote and I will be fulfilling my duty as a citizen by filling up BE form.
LoyarBurok Note: Read more from Eunice at her blog.
Just call me GOD OF POLITICS!!!
YES!!! YES!! YES!!!
Pls refer to my comment posted above @ 6:15pm!!!
I'm indeed CORRECT in the PREDICTION. Amazingly, I got the MAJORITY CORRECT as well.
Yes!!!
Hi all,
This is a EXTRA MILE of effort I'm bring for everyone here before the RESULTS are OUT tonite.
"I PREDICT BN to win by 500-1500 votes"
Why??? My analysis are as followed:
During the last election, many members in the BN coalition who are voters in Hulu Selangor was rather UPSET with the previous administration headed by PAK LAH. Many of these voters of whom by-right should have translated their votes to BN actually DIDN'T come out to vote. For those BN coalition members/voters in Hulu Selangor who had exercised their voting rights actually SPOIL their VOTES or voted for the Opposition.
If we look back to the last election result, there are as many as 1000 odd UNDI ROSAK & 99% of these UNDI ROSAK was due the reason said above. Take MCA as an example, in Hulu Selangor itself there are already 8000 odd votes into BN's pocket but was spoilt in the last election due to disagreement factor within MCA itself.
Now that MCA had consolidated itself with CHUA SOI LEK's leadership, MCA is now UNITED & STRONG with most MCA voters in Hulu Selangor voting back for BN again. Based on solely on this factor, BN will automatically have at least 7000-8000 votes into their tally (this have NOT include MIC's share).
Thus, if the last election's majority was just a mere 200-300 votes…we can be assured this time round, BN will have a MINIMUM of 7000-8000 extra votes coming from the CHINESE alone to offset this previous 200 odd majority claimed last election by the Opposition. If we put it into numbers…..8000 Chinese votes from MCA members minus 300 majority votes of last election = 7700 votes for the BN. This of course had NOT include MIC's share of which I predict will add on another +/- 1000 odds.
As such, I expect BN to win by a rather SLIM majority of NOT EXCEEDING 2000 votes. Well, of course I will be EXTREMELY DELIGHTED to see BN proving me wrong by obtaining an excellent 5000 majority votes & above.
All these at the moment merely remains SPECULATION & no Political Analysts will DARE to argue my points. Just let see how things will end up in less than 4 hours from now….
It's either YOU BETUL or I BETUL…….Good Luck!!!
Hi Eunice,
Is that you as Lady Baba. Funny you. I enjoy watching the clip from Penang.
Thank you many times for your gallant effort and total commitment.
Cheers
Greetings Eunice, thank you for your keen reporting. As we can see that PR ceramahs are better attended by the people, let us hope then that the shouts of support and the eager masses streaming into PR's ceramah can be translated in solid votes for a convincing win.
Now we wait!!