LANGKAWI (May 7): Their income may be low, but that did not stop a group of fishermen in Pulau Tuba from taking a couple of days off just to ensure that everything went well for Pakatan Harapan chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s visit to the island.

“We set up the tents, got tables and chairs from our community centre, decorated the place where Tun and his wife will sit to eat and got the ladies here to start preparing the dishes for the feast,” said fisherfolk Suhaili Baharin, 44.

The event was held on open ground flanked by nearby hills and there was excitement in the air as about 700 villagers turned up on a hot sunny afternoon.

A convoy of motorcycles bearing PKR and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) flags waited at the jetty for him, and his entourage.

“Everyone is excited to see him in person. The last time he was here was 20 years ago. We are grateful to Mahathir who developed this island during his tenure as the Prime Minister.

“The roads and electricity supply was done then, so was the jetty. Youths could find work on Langkawi. Life was less stressful also then. We managed to make ends meet, and save money,” she added.

Pulau Tuba — inhabited by some 4,000 people, 70% of whom are fisherfolk, and the rest odd-job workers — is the biggest of three mountainous islands located 15 minutes by boat from Langkawi, the other two are Pulau Dayang Bunting and Pulau Lubuk Chempedak.

The islands come under the Kuah State constituency, a Barisan Nasional stronghold which is being contested by its BN incumbent Nor Saidi Nanyan, PPBM’s Mohd Firdaus Ahmad, PAS’ Mazlan Ahmad, and independent candidate and local fisherman Mohamad Ratu Mansor.

The seat, which has 21,400 registered voters, was won by Nor Saidi with a 6,371-vote majority in 2013.

Fisherman Taufik Azmi, 44, claimed there is a high possibility of Mahathir winning the Langkawi Parliamentary seat, and that in Tuba, more than half the voters support him.

“Last time, Umno was strong here. We had no other choice but to support the party. However, since Mahathir formed PPBM, Umno has broken into two.

“The incumbent, Datuk Nawawi Ahmad of BN, comes during election but nothing else happens after that. Why should we support him?” Taufik added.

He said the cost of living has gone up even on their little island where things are priced 40% more than Langkawi because all household provision for Tuba is transported over by boat which uses petrol.

“As the petrol price has risen coupled with the goods and services tax (GST), so does the cost of things. We pay more for groceries than on Langkawi but what other choice do we have? As a fisherman, we get petrol subsidy but ours is 30 sen more than the fishermen in Langkawi. Why is there a disparity? They pay RM1.65 per litre and we pay RM1.95 per litre,” he said.

Taufik added that a return trip to their fishing points about eight nautical miles away now consumes RM100 of petrol compared with RM20 a few years ago. However, the cost is shared between other fishermen on the trip.

“So we earn less than we used to. On a good day, we can earn more than RM200 but during low season or storms, we hardly get anything,” he added.

After tucking into the island’s popular meal of steamed kembung (mackerel), beef curry, seaweed and sambal belachan, Mahathir took to the microphone, candidly saying that he has no money to offer them like BN, and did not want to make too many promises.

“I didn’t come here to give money or repair roofs unlike BN president Datuk Seri Najib Razak but I want this island to be as good and comfortable as Langkawi, and Alor Setar, but not Kuala Lumpur. That would take some time...for there to be LRT here,” he joked.

“When I came to Langkawi, the houses had attap roofs, now it is concrete. I see a lot of changes here (Tuba), though it is not enough. Youths need a place to play football, specialists need to be brought to the clinic on the island, and we need to build an emergency jetty for boats for the Tuba Islands,” he said.

Mahathir, 92, also envisioned the islanders popularising local dishes that can be sold in Langkawi and online to raise their living standards.

Former Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) chief executive officer Datuk Kamarulzaman Abdul Ghani, who was keen to see Mahathir win, said Langkawi deserved proper development plans.

“LADA was established to ensure Langkawi’s socio-economic development but it is now only focusing on enhancing tourism, and neglected the preservation of the island’s Unesco geopark status. We hope Mahathir would stop massive development projects, bring in quality tourists and ensure eco-tourism in sensitive areas of the island,” he said.

In the crowd to see Mahathir was homemaker Faridah Hussain, 64, who remembers serving him and his wife ‘mee gulung’ in Kelibang, Langkawi in the late 1980s.

“There was no air about him then. He came with his wife in his Proton Kembara, which he drove, and ordered the dish to eat by the side of the road. We only had four tables then and he didn’t mind sitting under the zinc roof to eat.

“He then chatted with us and asked how was business. We just mentioned if we could build a proper shop to shift the business from the road. Within a few weeks, our application for a licence to build the restaurant was approved. This is one of many examples of how Mahathir helped the people in Langkawi,” she said with a smile.