ROMPIN: With Rompin voters due to cast their ballots in the by-election today, DAP and PKR have appeared to abandon PAS in favour of the fight in Permatang Pauh, leaving the Islamist party alone in its battle against Barisan Nasional (BN) for the parliamentary seat.
PAS’ candidate for Rompin, Nazri Ahmad, is in a straight fight against BN’s Datuk Hasan Arifin but Nazri’s campaign is seen as badly organised and focused on Felda settlements, which make up a large portion of the voters there.
The Pahang PAS Youth chief’s haphazard campaign schedule points to PAS’ lack of readiness to fight for the Rompin seat, which was held by the late Tan Sri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis for six terms.
Even PAS’ top leadership seems to have given up on the Umno stronghold, as the mammoth ceramah (talk), Himpunan Derita Rakyat (Hindar) 2.0, in Muadzam Shah on Sunday night saw only the party’s state leaders present.
Only PAS Pahang commissioner Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, who is also PAS vice-president and the party’s Rompin election director, appeared at the ceramah, while representatives from other Pakatan Rakyat parties were noticeably absent.
Even the Islamist party’s nightly campaigning has been scaled down. Checks by The Malaysian Insider (TMI) found PAS’ operation rooms around the main roads merely showing repeats of past ceramah, or playing speeches from popular Terengganu ustaz Azhar Idrus, on their giant screens.
The lacklustre campaigning suggests that PAS has lost its mojo, without DAP and PKR by its side. The two parties are busy with the Permatang Pauh by-election campaign, which PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is contesting.
However, Temerloh Member of Parliament Nasruddin Hassan played down the matter and insisted all is well on the campaign front.
“About 70% of the [Rompin] voters come from Felda settlements. So, we are concentrating on those areas,” he told TMI when met at Hindar 2.0 on Sunday.
“Even without the component parties [helping us], we are okay. The Permatang Pauh by-election is running concurrently, so our manpower is spread thin,” he said.
“PKR did come to help us. Their machinery was here; their leaders, too.”
The Rompin parliamentary constituency has 53,596 voters, with 87% comprising Malays living in 14 Felda settlements.
The second-biggest voters are Orang Asli, followed by 9% Indians and just 2% Chinese.
Tuan Ibrahim told TMI that PAS had not employed a general campaign strategy, and instead relied on different approaches for each area, based on the economic activities of the voters.
“Our approach is not the same in each area. Our focus is on Felda settlements, so we have to deal with agencies. The mechanism is rather different.
“We approach the farmers and fishermen of Rompin differently. We visit the voters’ homes and employ a welfare approach,” said Tuan Ibrahim.
Political analyst Professor Madya Datuk Dr Muhammad Agus Yusoff said the factors working against PAS are the fact that it is on its own in the by-election, and that Rompin is an Umno stronghold.
The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia lecturer said financial constraints also forced PAS to work with limited posters and banners.
“PAS is working alone. Programmes and posters all require huge funds. So, PAS’ campaign and programmes are limited,” he told TMI.
Muhammad Agus, who is also in the constituency to observe the campaign first-hand, said BN will retain the seat.
“The only question is the majority that BN gets.”
He added that fence sitters should also be taken into consideration, before concluding that PAS will be slaughtered at the ballot box during polling today.
He said the silent voters, who compromise the youths working in cities, could turn PAS’ fortunes around.
“There are second- and third-generation Felda settlers who have different views from their parents,” said Muhammad Agus. — The Malaysian Insider
This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 5, 2015.