The weakened fort and Melaka's white elephants
MELAKA — For a state where it has a dedicated museum right smack in the city centre, Melaka certainly speaks volume of Umno’s political clout and prowess.
The museum occupies a colonial dutch building, painted in the iconic maroon hue of the Stadhuys and overlooks the street where former prime minister who is also Umno’s second president — the late Tunku Abdul Rahman — announces the date of Malaya’s independece.
Umno has a rich history in Malaysia, in Melaka however, the Malay party’s past is a bit more nuanced and storied.
With its roots stemming all the way prior to the second world war, the Umno in Melaka began as the Pergerakan Melayu Semenanjung (PMSM).
On March 28, 1948, PMSM unanimously agreed to change its name to Melaka Umno Division and later on in 1955 — along with MCA and MIC — contested in Malaya’s first election under the banner of Alliance.
Alliance won big time, suffering only a single defeat at the 52 parliamentary constituencies that were put to contest across the Federated Malay States.
In Melaka, Alliance dominated the two parliamentary constituencies it then had in 1955 which were Melacca Luar and Melacca Central.
The two seats were, respectively, won by Umno’s (Tun) Ghafar Baba and MCA’s (Tun) Tan Siew Sin.
Alliance’s Umno-MCA combo was an ideal pair; raking in consistent major victories in Melaka’s parliamentary electoral bouts.
“For the longest time, the only noteworthy rival to Alliance, that was later renamed to Barisan Nasional (BN), was the DAP but nevertheless, they too never managed to put up much fight,” said local history buff, Mohd Azim Daud.
He was indeed correct.
DAP has never managed to win more than a single parliamentary seat in Melaka, since it victorious debut — in Bandar Melacca (renamed as Kota Melaka in later elections) — in the 1969 General Elections.
In fact, in the 2004 General Election, BN basically conquered the entire parliamentary constituencies in Melaka which had already been increased to six seats due to delineation of electoral boundaries.
However in the 2013 General Elections, talk of Umno’s weakening hold on Melaka’s parliamentary constituencies started to seemingly carry weight.
“Ali Rustam (former Melaka chief minister Tan Sri Mohd Ali Rustam) lost that PKR chap (Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin); in his own turf to boot. It shocked many in Melaka,” Daud added.
But those who knew Melaka politics believed that Ali’s loss was his own undoing.
“Umno machinery basically deserted him. They were busy supporting Idris Haron in Tangga Batu (state seat) instead; they knew Idris was going to be the next chief minister because Ali announced that he wants to be a minister before the elections. Ali shot himself in the foot,” said an Umno insider.
And in the ensuing 2018 General Elections, the worst happened to Umno.
Initially, the Malay party only secured two of the six parliamentary constituencies in Melaka, namely; Jasin and Masjid Tanah but it lost the latter to Pribumi Bersatu after the seat’s member of parliament, Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, defected.
“But things have changed. We have the won the recent state polls. The momentum is there. The people in Melaka have warmed up to us again,” said an Umno party worker from Tangga Batu.
In the November 2021 state election, BN scored a landslide victory sweeping 21 out of the 28 state constituencies; effectively securing a two-thirds majority to form a new government.
Supporters and party members believed that the triumph — on top of the previous seven by-elections victories — further attested BN’s revival but this may not be entirely accurate as voters turnout of the Melaka poll was lower than the three most recent elections preceeding it.
“If Umno and BN are really confident in winning, then why isn’t Rauf contesting in the coming general elections? The leading man in Melaka Umno is taking a backseat? Its telling isn’t it?” was the rhetorical poser by an Amanah member who only wanted to be known as Hasrul.
He was referring to Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh the Melaka Umno liaison chief who won the Tanjong Bidara state seat against Mas Ermieyati and PKR’s Zainal Hassan by a hair’s breadth majority of 364 votes in last year’s state elections.
Like how it was in the state poll, the coming November 19 electoral bouts in Melaka will not be a straight one-to-once contest.
To top it off, a cloud of political fatigue and weariness seemed to hang over many in the state these days.
The talk reveberating in the local kopitiam was that many genuinely thought that there would be a semblence of stability once the state poll was over but alas, such was not the case.
Whatever disenchantment they felt was understandable as the state has endured a tumultuous rollercoaster ride.
The state lost its first Pakatan Harapan government led by Chief Minister (CM), Adly Zahari — in March 2020–, who was succeeded by Umno’s Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali whose government eventually collapsed thus triggering the November 2021 state election which only led to Sulaiman once again regained his CM post.
“All these drama that only led to square one, happening within the span of 1 year. Silly isn’t it?” quipped a local from Jasin, Andie Shazrin.
Expectedly Umno is confident that it can do well here but the politically erudite locals were of the opinion that the party should not be holding its breath.
“Its safest seat is Jasin. The rest are not,” a Perikatan Nasional (PN) party worker, Busu Khalid remarked.
In Alor Gajah for example, despite BN fielding Umno’s dashing and eloquent deputy youth chief Shahril Sufian Hamdan, the fight will likely revolve around the two other heavyweights, PN’s Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof and PH’s Adly.
“Adly is courteous, soft-spoken and polite. And he can recite the doa and lead prayers too. Overall, there isn’t any particular qualities in him that the voters here would find off-putting,” added Busu Khalid.
Though he has done a number of political gaffes, Redzuan has strong grassroot support and knows Alor Gajah but Adly knew Melaka; he has governed it to boot.
In fact, Adly knew that as much as BN had developed Melaka, it had also built a lot white elephants and has a number of problematic legacy issues.
There’s the man-made island Pulau Melaka — of which its reclamation was done from 1985 to 1990 — that has now become a ghost town despite the initial sales pitch of an RM1 billion “Arab City” development which has now become an abandoned project.
On the immediate left of Pulau Melaka’s roundabout also sits another botched development, the RM43 billion Melaka Gateway which was forced to go on indefinite hiatus after being implicated in a corruption case following investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Comission.
And in the heart of Bandar Hilir, there is the infamous now-defunct Melaka Monorel that was completed in 2010; in tandem with the Melaka Maju 2010 celebration.
The monorail was plagued by a spate of operational mishaps so much so that its services were halted 22 times before being completely shut down and abadoned till today.
But one which put many locals in the city centre ill at ease was the mammoth Melaka Waterfront Economic Zone otherwise known as the M-Wez development that was unveiled on August 26 last year — six months after BN toppled the PH government.
The RM100 billion project – touted as a game-changer for the local economy – involves the reclamation of thousands of hectares of new land reclaimed from the straits, effectively narrowing it.
“From what we heard, it’s a huge project that will cover almost the entirety of the Melaka coastline,” said environmental activist Chen Run Jia, a member of the Save Our Oceans anti-reclamation movement.
On the outset, Adly seemed to have just enough bullets to take on his opponents.
Even more so, with the prevailing perception of Umno’s callous and insensitive manouvering that had coerced Malaysians to go to the polls against the backdrop of the monsoon season.
Only time will tell if Shahril Hamdan has enough mettle to leverage on his youthful charm in riding the “political rejuvination” bandwagon and deliver a victory for Umno.
But the last time the city boy was parachuted to contest in the predominantly agricultural parliamentary constituency of Kuala Langat in the 2018 General Elections; Shahril Hamdan lost to PKR’s Dr Xavier Jayakumar by a whopping 17,112 majority.
