ALOR GAJAH, Nov 17 — As polling day fast approaches, Melaka Pakatan Harapan (PH) chief Adly Zahari is confident in taking the Alor Gajah parliamentary constituency even with the additional 20,000 new voters for the 15th general election.
The new 20,000 voters will bring the total number of eligible voters in the constituency to 93,000 voters.
"When we went to the ground, we found that voters are still with us.
"There is a situation where Umno-Barisan Nasional were not able to utilise the caretaker federal government's assistance since some ministers are from the Perikatan Nasional coalition,” Adly told Malay Mail during a recent interview.
BN and PN had a fallout post the Sabah state election when seat negotiations in the run-up to the Sabah state elections failed between the two coalitions.
That resulted in Bersatu, a party within the PN coalition, fielding candidates in areas where BN had also placed candidates.
"Now, BN is using only its own machinery, I don't think they will be able to introduce a new candidate here easily within the two weeks because that is not a local person, and he is a new face," Adly said, referring to Umno Youth deputy chief Shahril Hamdan.
"Umno is not the same as before, it used to have great financial ability because it had federal and state support.
"But I know the strength of the state is not enough for them to face this general election as it needed strength from the federal level, so I don't think they can build up Shahril's machinery to the maximum.
"We used to talk about being able to contest on a level battlefield, so this time we're confident that we can win," Adly added.
The Melaka state government is BN-led after the coalition won the state election in 2021.
Adly pointed out that if Barisan wants to use the Education Ministry for its campaign purposes, it could not, as it is held by a Bersatu party member; the same goes for the domestic trade and consumer affairs minister, who is also part of the PN coalition.
Even the police force is under Bersatu — the Home Ministry is held by Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin who is a Bersatu man, Adly said.
"If Bersatu wants to use the prime minister it can’t as the prime minister is Umno.
"So they both can’t use government machinery,” he said.
From his observations, the change of sentiment on the ground is now noticeable just by looking at the position of BN’s flags.
Back in the day, Adly said BN flags were placed inside housing compounds, on the walls, and even on rooftops.
"Today, the flags are placed only outside of a house. I suppose people are no longer comfortable hanging a BN flag in their homes when there is a corruption element linked to the BN symbol,” he said.
As for PN, according to Adly, it is lacking machinery support in Alor Gajah which has led it to use PAS' machinery and in the southern states like Johor, Melaka and Negri Sembilan where the Islamist party is not strong.
"Because PAS is weak, Bersatu automatically becomes weak too.
"When Pak Wan won in Alor Gajah, he won it with PH's strength," he said of Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof who ran and won in the seat in GE14.
When asked about his past with PAS, Adly said it has actually played as an advantage for him.
"I have been friends with PAS for 20 years, but he only knew them for three years.
"So would they choose Pak Wan or me who was once a PAS’ commissioner?
"PAS is disappointed that it isn't fielded here even when they have a political pact with Bersatu under the PN banner and it knows that PAS would only be used by Bersatu and will not get any benefits but when it comes to groundwork it’s always PAS who does the work,” said Adly.
He also said that with his style of politics, he has no enemies and believes that if PH wins in Alor Gajah, PN supporters will return to PH.
Alor Gajah’s underdevelopment BN's fault
Meanwhile, Adly said the Alor Gajah parliamentary constituency could have been transformed into a high-technology industrial and logistic park if the previous state government had given more attention to these areas.
He said the parliamentary constituency takes up 37 per cent of the entire Melaka state.
“When PH took over we had plans to turn Alor Gajah into a data centre and had already secured a foreign investor to make the data centre as the biggest in Southeast Asia.
“Within the 22 months we were in government, we were already at the stage of signing the agreement but then the PH government fell and the new state government didn’t follow up with the plan,” Adly said.
He added that these are the types of investment Alor Gajah needs to encourage industrial sector growth which will help create jobs and spur the local ecosystem.
He also recalled having plans to shift the composite energy plant from Batu Berendam to Alor Gajah.
“The company which owns that plant has more than 1,000 acres of land here in Alor Gajah, and expansion was not possible in Batu Berendam.
“If that was brought here, the composite energy could have been expanded to be used by flight technology, and further developed to mega drone technology.
“Looking at the current climate, if we don’t go [Industry] 4.0 , graduates’ income could be stagnant at RM2,000 or RM2,500, but with 4.0 their salaries could go up to RM4,000,” he added.
Adly, apart from Mohd Redzuan and Shahril, will face Muhammad Nazriq Abdul Rahman of Gerakan Tanah Air in the 15th General Election.
In GE14, Mohd Redzuan won the seat under PH’s ticket with 6,980 majorities, beating contenders from MCA-BN Wong Nai Chee (22,350) and PAS’ Mohammad Nazree Mohammad Aris (6,135).
The Alor Gajah seat was once held by the late Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba from 1974 to 1978 when the seat was known as Malacca Utara.
It was a BN stronghold for 10 terms up until 2018 when the coalition lost the seat to PH.
Alor Gajah is a mixed seat comprising 62.7 per cent Malay voters, 23.8 per cent Chinese, 12.9 per cent Indian and 2 per cent are of other ethnicities.
