The Malaysian Insight

DAP’s Alan Tee might be an experienced lawmaker but he surely has a tough fight on his hand in trying to retain the Yong Peng state seat for Pakatan Harapan in the coming Johor polls.

He not only faces a tough challenge from MCA – which is battling to win back its traditional seat – but also needs the turnout to be high to stand a chance of winning.

Experts predict that if the voter turnout is less than 65%, the chances of him winning are slim.

Tee is the former Senai assemblyman but has been moved by his party to contest in Yong Peng this time.

In the 14th general election in 2018, DAP won Yong Peng for the first time when Chew Peck Choo defeated Barisan Nasional’s MCA candidate Ling Tian Soon and Muhammad Abdullah from PAS, by a majority of 5,089 votes.

“According to unofficial statistics, every household in Yong Peng has at least one to two family members working in Singapore.

“This is about 3,000 people, but according to Election Commission, only 144 are eligible to vote.

“So, the biggest impact this time is the voter turnout and the overseas vote. If the voter turnout on the polling day is below 65%, we will not win in Yong Peng,” Tee told The Malaysian Insight.

In these polls, the Chinese turnout rate is estimated to be between 55% and 60%.

Malay votes will depend on the situation of each polling station, with the ethnic group making up between 22% and 25% in the last election.

However, this time it is estimated that only 15% will vote for Pakatan Harapan.

“PH is expected to get 40% support from the Indian community,” he said, adding that he hopes for 68% Chinese turnout this time. In the last election, the Chinese vote was somewhere 85% to 88%.

“This time if the support rate of the Chinese is 67%, we can still win by a narrow margin, but it is not easy.”

He reluctantly said that many people used the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse for not going out to vote, but there are people coming and going from restaurants and shopping malls.

Tee admitted that during a chat session with voters, he found that the atmosphere was different from previous polls.

He said the voters felt it was unnecessary to hold this election.

Yong Peng is a semi-urban and rural area, with nearly 60% of 24,903 voters Chinese in a mixed constituency at the last poll.

However, after the implementation of Undi18 and automatic voter registration, this number jumped to 33,053.

There are 2,016 (6.1%) first-time voters ages between 18 and 20, and 6,918 21-29-year-olds.

DAP’s four seats in danger zone

With PH in power for 22 months after winning GE14, BN accused the coalition of not fulfilling its election manifesto.

The ruling coalition has relied on the same arguments in successive polls since. However, Tee said this was not the complaint that he had heard from Yong Peng voters.

Instead, he said voters were more concerned about the movement control order (MCO), which made their lives difficult.

Their grievances included various failed policies during Perikatan Nasional’s administration, such as the delays in Covid-19 vaccine rollout, and economic hardship.

“The hashtag #kerajaangagal is no longer directed at PH, the people’s dissatisfaction is now directed towards PN.”

Tee admitted that there were still some who were dissatisfied with PH’s administration, including on issues affecting Chinese education and its failures to curb the fall in oil palm prices.

He added that – judging from the results of the Malacca elections, or the results of Sarawak and Sabah – the signs did not look good for DAP.

“If we say that in Johor, we have a good chance of winning for DAP, then it must be because we have worked very hard to conquer it.

“This time, if the voter turnout is low, the four seats in the DAP campaign will be labelled as dangerous areas, and it is very likely that we will lose Yong Peng, Bekok, Paloh and Pekan Nanas,” he said.

Tee also admitted Yong Peng voters were not familiar with him.

“I haven’t fully met them yet. I visited Yong Peng on the first day and tried my best to introduce myself to all voters.”

However, Tee said during his campaign rounds, many voters have called out his name, and invited him over for a tea, meal and that some even gave him encouraging words.

“Although I am not as well-known as my opponent (MCA candidate Ling Tian Soon), I will continue to work hard.”

He admitted that his campaign strategy is to be diligent and be able to meet the challenge of the opponent.

Make Yong Peng a logistics hub

Tee said he has ideas for the future development of Yong Peng, including turning it into a logistics hub in Johor.

“When Yong Peng is turned into a logistics hub, young people can return to Yong Peng to work and be with their families.”

In Tee’s plan, he believes that Yong Peng’s geographical location is suitable for doing so.

For this reason, he has also drawn up three plans, which he intends to implement one by one, if he is elected.

“I hope that all logistics operators can come to Yong Peng and make it a transit point for the logistics industry. It is less than one hour from Yong Peng to various towns in Johor.

“This is an excellent location, if the goods are from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, it will come to Yong Peng.

“Converting stations will thereby reduce logistics costs, and it will benefit the industry at that time.”

He also wants to make better use of abandoned land in the constituency so small farmers will have a better opportunity.

As a former Senai assemblyman, he learned that the state government still has 18,000 acres of unplanned land.

He hopes to rely on these lands, which believes can promote smallholder-based organisations to build bridges with the state government and cooperate with the development of idle land.

“On one hand, it can increase the value of the land, and on the other hand, it can create a new Yong Peng and provide more employment opportunities.

“This is a win-win situation for the state government, landlords and small farmers.”

According to the feedback he said he received, 70% of the people think that Yong Peng can be developed into the hub he talked about, while the other 30% were not aware.

The fight in Yong Peng is seen as a proxy battle between MCA president Wee Ka Siong – who is also the MP for Ayer Hitam, under which Yong Peng falls – and Johor DAP chief Liew Chin Tong.

MCA candidate Ling is MCA’s national organising secretary and Wee’s trusted lieutenant, while 43-year-old Tee is Liew’s political secretary.

Yong Peng will be a three-cornered fight. The third candidate in the race is Perikatan Nasional’s Gerakan candidate Susan Yong. – March 7, 2022.