For MCA incumbent Lee Hack Teik, the Pengkalan Kota state seat is a ‘sure win’, or as he would say in Hockien - the main Chinese dialect in Penang - “bao ya”.
To underscore his confidence of retaining his seat, Lee carries with him a ‘kaya’ bun as it rhymes with ‘bao ya’.
Lee (
left
), 55, is clearly popular among the Chinese community in Georgetown after having held Pengkalan Kota for three terms, and he is expecting to serve his fourth.
The politician-cum- sinseh (Chinese medicine man) is known for his witty yet catchy election slogans.
Over 95 percent of voters in Pengkalan Kota are Chinese and the constituency - comprising mostly lower-income earners - claims to have the highest number of temples in Georgetown.
Touted as the most popular grassroots leader in MCA, he rides a Honda motorbike everywhere he goes - rain or shine.
According to one of his aides, Lee is running a guerilla-style campaign.
He does not have a fixed schedule on where he would visit and his campaign is light on
ceramah
(political talks) but heavy on line dancing and singing. (
right
)
The master politician could pick out the names of just about all the 20-odd people who were at the final stop of his campaign round on Wednesday night at a temple located next to Penang’s second-oldest flats near Lebuh Macallum.
Lee’s brief speech at the temple was more entertaining than a talk show, accompanied with his animated facial expressions, drawing laughter from the crowd.
His harshest critics dismissed him more of an entertainer than politician. But temple chief Lian Teik Soon ( right ), 53, disagreed.
“No matter what problems we have - funerals or new-born babies, broken lifts, potholes or clogged drains, he will be there for us even when it’s 3am or 4am,” Lian told Malaysiakini.
Mounting an uphill challenge against Lee in the state seat is 28-year-old DAP’s Lau Keng Ee.
Despite his age, Lau is not a rookie - he contested against a Gerakan’s candidate four years ago in neighbouring Kebun Bunga state seat but lost.
According to Lau, while it is important to provide ‘good service’ to the constituents, voters also need someone who can speak on their behalf in the state legislative assembly.
“Between BN and the people, Lee will choose the former,” said Lau.
But Lee retorted that a politician’s utmost priority is to serve the constituents. He also dismissed criticisms that his sometimes infamous ‘stunts’ - including dressing up as a taoist monk - have brought opprobrium to his elected office.
“We don’t need high-sounding theories to convey what we have to say, I’m merely turning them into layman language. Perhaps those who are making the criticisms are just being sour grapes since it’s not easy to be humourous,” he said.
Tough for BN in Tanjung
While Lee considered his seat as a ‘sure win’, the same cannot be said of the BN candidate in the Tanjung parliamentary seat, of which Pengkalan Kota is part of.
The other two state seats are Padang Kota and Komtar - both are being defended by Gerakan’s Teng Chang Yeow - who is now said to be a contender for Penang chief minister post - and MCA’s Lim Gim Soon respectively.
Interestingly, while DAP won Tanjung in 2004, all the three state seats in the constituency fell to candidates from the ruling BN coalition.
The opposition party hopes that this time, Chinese voters in Penang will not resort to their notorious split-voting in backing the opposition for parliament seats and BN for state.
Incumbent parliamentarian Chow Kon Yeow, who is DAP Penang state chief, is expected to bag the seat again despite mounting a rather low-key campaign this time.
He cited his party’s difficulty in getting permission to rent places in the area, making it difficult for him to hold ceramah .
Chow and his trio of state seat candidates under Tanjung nevertheless participated in ceramah held by the party in neighbouring areas.
His challenger, newcomer Gerakan’s Khaw Veon Szu (
right
), a lawyer, conceded it was not easy to wrest the seat from DAP but vowed to work for every single vote in the 53,188-strong electorate.
“There is a need to spend as much time as I can with the voters... (but) I don’t think I can cover everything in this 13-day-campaign,” Khaw said.
The 37-year-old is banking on the support from the three incumbent BN state assemblymen.
“A word of introduction coming from them is better than coming from me. We are trying to go everywhere together as much as we can so we can be seen as one team,” added Khaw, who is also a former Penang municipal councillor.