They will have to decide between an experienced old-school politician and a rising star riding the wave of change.
BANGI:
When they go to the polls this May 5, the 133,139 voters in Serdang
will have to make the tricky decision of choosing between a veteran
Barisan Nasional leader and an erudite young politician from Pakatan
Rakyat for their MP.
MCA’s Yap Pian Hon, 70, is in a straight fight with 38-year-old DAP
candidate Ong Kian Ming, who has made a name for himself as a political
analyst.
On the surface, Yap seems to have the greater advantage. He was born
in the Serdang area and was its MP from 1995 to 2008, when BN chose not
to field him as a candidate. Even before Serdang became a parliament
seat, he was its state assemblyman for three terms from 1974.
Ong is DAP’s election strategist. His political analyses have been
widely published in several popular online and print publications. He
was a Fullbright scholar and has a PhD in political science from the
US-based Duke University. He also has economics degrees from the London
School of Economics and Cambridge University.
Before becoming active in politics, he lectured at UCSI University
and was a consultant for the Blue Ocean Strategy regional centre.
A Serdang new village resident, speaking to FMT, succinctly described
the choice open to Serdang voters as a choice between “maintaining the
traditional past” and “shaping the future”.
Yap’s political rhetoric is typical of the old school. He talks about
development at the local level, promising a better traffic dispersal
system, environmentally-conscious planning for a new industrial zone and
other socio-economic benefits that BN could bring to the constituents
he hopes to be representing after the election.
The Chinese make up 48.6% of Serdang voters and the Malays 39.6%. The rest are Indians and others.
To woo the Indian voters, Yap has promised an additional service centre in Bangi that would cater specifically to the community.
But a veteran political observer disagrees that Yap has an advantage
over Ong. He reasoned that while local concerns were important,
Serdang’s voters were sophisticated enough to place BN’s promises and
baits against the larger background of national or “bigger” issues such
as the rising cost of living and the deteriorating standard of
education.
Indeed, a random survey of local voters revealed that national issues
were important to them. Many spoke disparagingly of the moral integrity
of the BN administration, questioning its sincerity in stamping out
corruption and its abuse of public facilities and the instruments of
government to serve its political interest.
BN has failed
Even when it came to Yap’s promises of developing the local economy,
several respondents said they doubted that he could fulfil them all.
“For 56 years,” said a voter, “the BN had so much opportunity to
develop Serdang. We repeatedly elected its candidates. Yet, many
promises get forgotten, to be resurrected only at election time.”
Nevertheless, according to Ong, local issues do crop up during his
campaign rounds. “People are concerned about traffic congestion, rising
crime and difficulties in getting licences for petty trading and the
like,” he told FMT.
He said he had so far been well received during his campaign rounds
despite his lack of proficiency in Hakka, the predominant Chinese
dialect spoken in Serdang. However, he makes amends by speaking in
Mandarin.
He believes he has the advantage of being identified with the “wave of change sweeping through the nation”.
An FMT reporter spent a few hours last Sunday listening to
conversations at a coffee shop serving a new village in Serdang. It was
interesting to hear the many ways of saying “enough is enough” in the
various local dialects.
Pakatan supporters in Serdang agree that local development, as a
political issue, should not be taken lightly, but they say Ong should be
able to deliver such development if Pakatan wins the general election,
especially if it also retains Selangor.
“Yes, Yap has the advantage of experience in the constituency, but
Ong can deliver better in Parliament,” said one of the volunteers at his
operations centre.
“Ong has the intelligence and the experience to advance proposals to
the Pakatan coalition in terms of economic, political and educational
reforms, which will definitely benefit Serdang residents directly. But
more crucially, Pakatan is likely to reactivate local council elections,
which will give citizens a say in the administration of their
community.
“Yap cannot do all this because he will have to abide by BN policies, which are determined by Umno, not MCA.”
