Tenang: DAP gimmicks vs MCA bulletins

Out with the old, in with the new. That’s what the Chinese worldwide traditionally wish their family and friends each lunar New Year.

Pakatan campaigners in the Tenang by-election are similarly wishing for ‘change’ - a change of the Tenang assemblyperson and the Johor state government.

With the Chinese New Year festivities just around the corner, DAP’s efforts to attract Chinese voters is banking on the festive traditions to strike a chord with the electorate, using the traditional practice of spring-cleaning the house and the buying of new furniture to call on Chinese voters to ‘spring-clean Malaysian politics’.

“If we want to cleanse the house and get new things in time for Chinese New Year, we will also have to change the assemblyperson for Tenang," said Johor DAP chairperson Boo Cheng Hau.

He said this when DAP unveiled their by-election theme “Change Now, Save Malaysia” at an official launch this morning.

To win over the Chinese voters to the opposition camp, the party is also helping to sell a softer image of PAS candidate Normala Sudirman with clever photoshoots and gimmicks.

Normala goes festive

Catchy leaflets looking like Chinese New Year couplets depicting a sweet Normala in loose-fitting cheongsam with long sleeves and sporting a bright red headscarf are being distributed.

From her attempts at Chinese calligraphy writing to distributing mandarin oranges, it is evident that Normala and DAP are not taking the support of the Chinese, representing 39 percent of the constituency, lightly.

When not riding on novelty, DAP is also bringing out the ‘opposition’ warhorse issues of price hikes and rising living costs, as they have done in several past DAP functions.

They have not failed to ridicule the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, for assuring the public that there would be no increase in RON95 petrol prices, only for a price hike to be announced just under a month afterwards.

Boo said that the Chinese voters in Tenang, because of their semi-urban makeup, are also looking at national issues such as good governance and corruption.

War of bulletins

MCA, meanwhile, has persisted with their onslaught on PAS’ Islamic state agenda and claims that a PAS victory brings the country one step closer to Islamic theocracy.

Gerakan Wanita chief Tan Lian Hoe went as far as to suggest that Normala’s reluctance to shake hands with the male electorate - that the PAS candidate cited was in accordance with her religious beliefs - was sign of a superiority complex.

“This is the most basic thing... Not only men, but when she shakes hands with women, she also needs to wear gloves. This is not friendly. It's as if she thinks our hands are dirty," said Tan.

In print as well, the BN, and especially MCA, have not let up with scores of bulletins and their campaign newsletter (above) attacking the Islamic state issue.

The newsletter, for example, carried articles with newspaper cuttings from the mainstream media about PAS’ insistence on setting up an Islamic state, and even had a literal translation of PAS’s constitution.

Apart from PAS bashing, MCA also published a 16-page Mandarin booklet (left) full of newspaper cuttings that sang praises for the contributions and leadership of both party president Chua Soi Lek and his son and Labis MP Chua Tee Yong to the Chinese community.