KEEP OUT….A banner hanging near the entrance of Kampung Istimewa tells opposition parties to keep out of the village.
By : CLARA CHOOI (MI)
SHIRLEY Fitri knows she lives in squalor but does not believe it is the Barisan Nasional (BN) government’s duty to help her improve her livelihood.
Her modest wooden home in Kampung Istimewa along Jalan Batu Sapi here is old and decrepit, its floors aged and full of cracks.
Every day, she opens her windows to a view of a makeshift dumpsite in her backyard and the stench of rotting rubbish.
The 30-year-old housewife may have been living in dire conditions all her life but she does not blame BN for it.
Like most others in the village, she has been taught for years to be “grateful” to the ruling coalition.
When asked what she is grateful for, however, the mother of three has no answer.
“BN has brought a lot of development to us. They are the government and we must be grateful for what they have given us,” she told The Malaysian Insider when met during the campaign for the November 4 by-election. This is why, said Shirley, her vote would always go to the ruling coalition.
She agreed that the village was messy and in urgent need of attention, but she does not believe that any opposition party could help to make a change.
Some 200 families live in poor conditions in Kampung Istimewa, a BN stronghold in Batu Sapi.
“You look for yourself and you can see how bad it is here,” she said, gesturing to the dumping ground just outside her home and the other dilapidated houses on stilts.
“But we must vote for BN. It is our responsibility to vote for BN. They are the government,” she insisted. Like Shirley, the other villagers of Kampung Istimewa, a small, messy settlement in the coastal township of Batu Sapi, are of the same opinion.
Here, just south of Sandakan city, over 200 families and comprising some 700 voters live in tattered conditions with many youths jobless and the others, working in low-wage jobs as factory workers or fishermen.
But to them, the word ‘opposition’ is taboo and those who oppose the BN are considered as traitors to the government.
At the entrance to the settlement, villagers have hung a massive banner containing a warning, printed in bold, that no opposition party was allowed to campaign for votes inside.
“We, the villagers of Kampung Istimewa, forbid any opposition party from campaigning to beg for votes here”, the sign read. Last night, PKR’s de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was forced to skip the village due to their dislike for anyone remotely against BN.
And at every home met by The Malaysian Insider, the anti-opposition fervour was expressed forcefully.
Housewife Naida Abdul Ghani, 40, said that the BN had been in power for a long time and was the people’s only option.
“They are a good government. We get help from them for the poor, for education, for our welfare. What more is there that we should ask for?
“We do not know the opposition here. Who are they?” she said.
Village elder Asniah Amin, 63, was full of praise for the BN. Even without being approached for her opinion, the cheerful-looking Asniah stopped by to speak to The Malaysian Insider before shuffling off to her house.
“BN is good. [A] very good government. They built our roads, they gave us water. We have lived under their rule for years and we will vote for them, all of us,” she enthused.
Asniah admitted that she did not know BN’s candidate, Datin Linda Tsen Thau Lin, well but was sure that the soft-spoken widow would do well for the Batu Sapi constituency as she had the backing of the government.
Asniah said that she has not met with BN's Tsen but believes the widow could work well for Batu Sapi folk.
“Her husband promised to build us a water tank here but he did not do it yet. At least if Linda wins, she can do it for us,” she said, smiling.
Tsen is the widow of the seat’s late MP, Datuk Edmund Chong Ket Wah, who died in a biking tragedy on October 9, triggering the polls.
Asniah said that as the opposition was not in the government, it would not be able to deliver any of the promises that BN could.
Tsen is facing Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and Pakatan Rakyat’s PKR for the seat. SAPP has fielded its president and former Sabah chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee in the contest while PKR was represented by lawyer and former candidate for Tuaran, Ansari Abdullah.
Asniah agreed that the village was in desperate need of attention and promised that if Tsen won the seat, she would personally invite her to pay a visit to Kampung Istimewa.
“Let her come here and see how we are living so she can help us,” she said.
Silence, however, was all that came from Asniah when asked if she agreed that BN had been given plenty of opportunities to help the poor folk of Batu Sapi during its rule.
“Whatever it is, we will vote for BN. Here, you can find no opposition supporters, we must support BN because it is our responsibility as citizens of Sabah,” she said.
On a lighter note, the smiling Asniah said that the village planned to hold a huge party to celebrate if Tsen were to clinch the seat come polling day.
“We will have a big ‘pesta’ for the villagers. We hope she will win so we can celebrate,” she said.
Youths Mohd Ismail Arpah, 22, and Mohd Faizal Mohd Anil, 26, who were standing nearby, agreed enthusiastically with Asniah.
But the duo, both unemployed, too could not answer when asked why they believed that the ruling coalition had done a good job.
“Why do we support BN? They are the government. For sure, there is no other party that can do what they can,” said Mohd Ismail.
Mohd Faizal said that PKR was not known among Sabah folk and the party only understood issues in the peninsular.
Both Mohd Faizal and Mohd Ismail, however, claimed that Kampung Istimewa folk were also “okay” with SAPP’s Yong.
“He used to be chief minister before. He used to be in BN,” said Mohd Faizal. He added the second best choice to BN would be Yong, as he was a local, knew Sabah’s problems well and used to hold position as chief minister.
Daunie Abdul Ghani, 26, said that BN was the only choice available to the people of Sabah.
She agreed that in the peninsular, BN had suffered significant losses in the last general election but insisted that Sabah folk would not be as “ungrateful” as the west Malaysians.
“We are different here,” she said. As she spoke, several other youths who were sitting on the veranda of her mini-mart in the village here cheered “Hidup BN!”.
Youths chant “Hidup BN” at Kampung Istimewa, a BN fortress of over 700 voters
Caught up in their enthusiasm, Daunie joined them and pumped her fist in the air as she shouted along with them.
There are hundreds of others like Daunie and the villagers of Kampung Istimewa, many of whom have been hardcore BN supporters all their lives and do not believe any other alternative party could govern as well as the ruling coalition has.
For them, BN equals the government and the government knew better than any other newborn political party, how to bring changes to the constituency.
They do not believe that their right to vote has made them kingmakers in the country or that it was BN’s duty to serve them. Rather, the locals here think that it was their duty to show their “gratefulness” to BN by marking an “X” next to the “dacing (scales)” symbol coming polling day.
SAPP, they believe, was a viable alternative but mostly because Yong himself had once ruled in Sabah.
They have no memory of PKR, except images of its de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, whom they know was once the country’s deputy prime minister.
But even Anwar will find it hard to convince these staunch supporters that it was no grave sin to vote for the opposition.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak may have once declared himself that the “era of government knows best is over” but his words have clearly failed to reach many of the townsfolk here in the east coast constituency of Sabah.
And come polling day tomorrow, their blind support for BN may likely chalk a win for the ruling coalition in Batu Sapi and prove that Sabah and Sarawak remain BN “fixed-deposit” states in any election.
No comments:
Post a Comment