SG BESAR POLLS After more than 30 years, 76-year-old Daud Abdullah is the only 'box man' left in Sungai Besar.

He lives in a rundown one-storey terrace house at the end of Lorong 5, Taman Seri Sentosa, surrounded by mountains of cardboard boxes, some in piles stacked over five feet high.

The only space free from the recyclables is the bedroom he shares with his son and several of their six cats.

"When it rains it will leak everywhere," Daud said, though he said that he was used to the hard life.

Piles of scrap metal, rusted tin cans, plastic bottles and other recyclables were also strewn across his courtyard.

Once a month, he would call a collector to come take away the piles - earning a few hundred ringgit each time.

When asked if his neighbours had ever told him off for the veritable junkyard in his lawn, he said that there was nothing for them to complain about when a man was making an honest living.

"What is there for them to complain about? If they complained, then they should put food on my table.

"I am a poor man. I don't steal. I am seeking an honest living," said Daud.

Every morning, he would ride into town to collect cardboard boxes from the back alleys of shops and major supermarkets.

"Now I am the only one left after my friend Ali passed away. He used to be the only one allowed to take from Seri Kassim," he told Malaysiakini while lifting the boxes onto his custom three-wheeler bicycle.

Seri Kassim is a popular chain of convenience store and restaurant, with several outlets across town.

Daud's other stops include the nearby market, where he would collect used plastic bottles and tie them to the back of his bike.

"My old bike was a chopper. I used to take my son along, sometimes all the way to Tanjung Malim.

"This bike I got for RM30. You cannot find this anymore," said Daud, who is a familiar face in the area.

Most people pay little attention to Daud, except on this occasion, with a video camera and reporter trailing after him.

So much so, he lamented, he had yet to receive visits from any candidates contesting in the Sungai Besar polls.

"They (candidates) are more than welcomed to come... But so far none," he noted, with one day left before the June 18 polls.

"All I want to ask for is a petrol-powered metal cutting machine," he said earlier at his house while sitting on top of a pile of cardboards.

Asked who he intended to ask it from, Daud said, "whoever wins".

"I am not envious of anybody... All rezeki comes from Allah SWT.

"Every night when I pray, I would seek blessing and forgiveness for all the people who helped me," he added.

Little difference

Daud said there is little difference in his everyday routine, even with the buzz of the by-elections and the lull of Ramadan.

"I don't eat a lot... Normally if I eat in the afternoon, I will not eat at night. This year I hope to complete 30 days of Ramadan," he said.

When it came to his six cats, Daud said his wife used to cook at home but he now bought them food as she was staying at their daughter's house in nearby Taman Binjai Jaya.

His other daughter was in Kuala Lumpur while his youngest son had passed away.

Daud said he might spend the upcoming Hari Raya celebration in Kuala Lumpur, if his daughter agreed to sponsor his bus ticket.

As he was talking, one of the cats, named Kuning, jumped onto his lap; another called Hitam was pawing a small dead rat.

Daud joked that his neighbour had warned him about snakes and rats entering his home, but the creatures ended up in their homes instead.

He also revealed that he had yet to make up his mind on whether to vote for PAS' Abdul Rani Osman or Parti Amanah Negara's Azhar Abdul Shukur.

"My Indian family, they advised me that as a Muslim, I should stay with an Islamic party... but this time I haven't made up my mind," said Daud who converted to Islam from Hinduism.

Abdul Rani and Azhar are in a three-cornered fight for Sungai Besar with BN's Budiman Mohd Zohdi.