LABIS, March 23 ― Chu Teck Euan, 60, pours hot water into three cups filled with coffee, sugar and milk, stirs them, and places them on a tray that a waitress takes to serve customers.
There are around 10 old marble topped tables in Peng Heong Coffee Shop, including three outside the pavement of a long shophouse along Jalan Ibrahim in Pekan Lama Labis.
The restaurant has been existence at the same spot for already four generations and Chu, who is popularly known as Steven, is the fourth generation to run the business.
What is interesting is that Peng Heong Coffee Shop, for the past four generations, is a meeting place of all races from the working class in town from morning till 5pm.
“I called my restaurant as 1Malaysia because of the varied customers who come and we know each other closely...sort of became personal friends.
“Here they talk almost about everything and thus far there has been no quarrels between them,” he said in fairly eloquent English.
Asked about Datuk Chua Tee Yong's chances of retaining the Labis parliament seat in the coming general election, Chu said he would wait and see who would be fielded by the Opposition.
“i think and what I heard my customers talked about is Chua is good, but still we have to see who is to contest against him,” he explained further.
Chua is defending the seat that he won in the last general election by a majority of 353 votes, a sharp drop from 2008 general election where his majority was 4,094 votes.
His decline in majority was attributed to the 2013 so-called “Chinese tsunami”. Whether such sentiments still exist this time around is a big question as MCA tries to recover itself.
The DAP, a Chinese-based party dominant in the opposition pact of Pakatan Harapan (PH), has begun a full scale assault in Johor, aiming to chip off all Chinese support for Johor Barisan Nasional (BN) while its partners ― Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and yet-to-be approved Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Pribumi) ― target Malay support.
Since the pact has in hand Gelang Patah, Kulai and Kluang, it now moves upwards north to Labis and Segamat, which people on the streets deem as hot seats due to BN representatives' slim majority in the last general election.
Halim Harun, 57, is a keen observer of political development in Labis and he has good words for Chua, whom he is acquainted with.
Born and raised in Labis, as a small time contractor whose job is also to get to know local political players, he said Chua seemed to be working hard and meeting up with voters often in the past two years.
“He seems very excited and will not miss out in attending weddings of locals regardless of race, as well as funerals.
“His several secretaries, who are young, are also active in organising meet up sessions between Chua and the voters in small groups, solving small problems accordingly which I personally think bring him closer to the people,” said Halim.
“We all understand the heat he is on because a small majority of 353 votes in the last general election comes to zero now with the DAP full scale assault but nevertheless, I see it as a very big challenge for him.
“The weakness for Chua now is the state seat of Bekok where it is Chinese majority and DAP has a stronghold while another state seat of Tenang is considered safe because it is held by Umno’s Mohd Azhar Ibrahim, where PAS infuence is considered reducing very much,” he lamented.
Chua, a two-term MP in Labis, has good MCA election machinery in Labis, including Bekok, while Umno’s election machinery in Tenang is considered formidable.
Labis has no local issues, which is an advantage to Chua, but national issues played up by the DAP take centre stage among Chinese voters in Bekok. This is Chua’s poison in the coming general election.
Chua himself may not know exactly what the voters want at present because on the surface, the so-call political climate is calm, or as the state seat name reflects ‘tenang’, as voters go about doing their daily routine, unperturbed by the war of words front-paged in dailies between the two warring Chinese-based parties, DAP and MCA.
Nobody talks about it and nobody seems to care about it, but the undercurrent is something else where probably only the candidates and their respective election machinery understand and are fighting hard against each other.
The constituency is large and making personal calls by candidates can be considered tedious and tiring.
The existence of a coffee shop such as Peng Heong is one of many places where candidates can feel voter support, although many will not openly state their stand.
