PENANTI, Aug 24 - Noriah Abdullah is excited. The 58-year-old grandmother of eight from Machang in Kelantan is taking part in her first out-of-state by-election campaign. Interestingly, she is canvassing foreign ground on behalf of a candidate from a different
political party.
And she is not alone.
Since Aug 18, Pas members from Kelantan have been crossing the Titiwangsa in droves, to help their Pakatan Rakyat ally win the hottest seat in the country.
Other Anwar supporters from all over the country, including those from DAP and PKR have also been driving in to show their support, though they are deployed elsewhere to assist the local campaign machinery, where the ethnic make-up of the voters is more mixed.
Noriah is part of the third and last wave of Muslimat to arrive in Permatang Pasir, one of the three state constituencies that make up the greater parliamentary constituency of Permatang Pauh, and a Pas stronghold. They will be on duty until polling day on Tuesday.
"We don't want to be left out," she said, explaining why she as a Pas member was campaigning for a PKR leader. "If we don't win, we'll feel regret. If we don't help, we will blame
ourselves," she continued.
Having no relatives in the area, she, like many of the other Pas members, have been "adopted" by their PKR brethren who provide them with free room and board for the duration of their stay.
"It's like a homestay," said Noriah, who sounded quite happy to leave her usual household duties to the care of her husband.
A sister-in-arms, overhearing her remark, added that Kelantanese men were very capable in household chores from cooking and washing clothes to taking care of the young children.
Wan Hamidani Wan Ahmad, the head of the Pas Muslimat entourage from Machang, explained that it was normal for the womenfolk to leave their homes during election season to campaign out-of-state and that their husbands were used to it.
They were also very supportive of their wives' political gung-ho, she added. She had been participating in outstation campaign efforts since the 1980s.
"Kita semangat!" she chirped. Still, going house-to-house is no bed of roses, said Wan Hamidani,
affectionately known as Kak Ida.
"We have to wake up at 4am. We perform our prayers and do the other stuff and then we gather at the action stations for briefing at 8am. We only sleep at 1am," she said. And that's only half the story. Mohd Sahil Abdul Rahman, a youthful Pas supporter explained that it was usually the womenfolk who campaign door-to-door.
The menfolk will cover the more public spaces - the markets, the coffeeshops, the surau, the mosques.
"But it is harder to campaign house-to house," he said. Most people will accept the pamphlets and other campaign materials they distribute in the public spaces, but not everyone will open their door to welcome the door-to-door campaigners, especially if the person
at the gate is male.
"Most of the people at home here are housewives. The only news they hear is what they see on TV or read in the newspapers or hear from their husbands who get the gossip outside," he elaborated.
That is why the women are given the task of explaining the dynamics of the election process to the housewives, in the belief that they are able to better communicate with their own gender.
Language and image too plays an important part in communicating their ideals. That is why in areas, such as Seberang Jaya, where the voters are less polarised, the local PKR campaign machinery will carry out their house-to-house voting surveys jointly with their fellow DAP and
Pas members.
They put in a lot of effort to make sure the candidate they campaign for wins. But sometimes, things don't turn out according to their desires.
Ka Ida recounted one time when she campaigned in the Pasir Mas election in Kelantan and the Pas candidate lost.
"It was very sad," she said, especially when they had gone all out. This by-election, however, did not seem to pose much trouble for these expatriate iron ladies, accompanied by two of their local Pas members.
They had no trouble getting the locals to open their doors and giving their details, such as their names and MyKad numbers, to check against the electoral roll. In fact, they faced no problem getting the residents to state their political preference, whether they supported PKR or Umno, although, as mentioned earlier, the Permatang Pasir area is filled with Pas supporters.
Yesterday, many motorists who spotted them carrying PKR material honked a few times as a show of support. Some even pulled over to ask for the stuff. And one sympathizer, a Chinese, even rolled down the window and let rip the PKR anthem. From the sound of it though, he needed to get a replacement cassette.
Kak Ida said they had even had several encounters with the BN campaign
machinery on the ground.
"We have bumped into them while visiting the houses, but we didn't fight. Just smiled at each other and moved along. "Even though we have a different political understanding, all other
things are the same. They are just doing their duty, as we are," she
recounted.
And then we stumbled on to a Chinese kampung in Mukim 5 of Penanti. They were startled. No one expected to find a Chinese settlement in the middle of a Malay-majority area.
Initially, they were hesitant to approach the Chinese man standing outside his house, not because of the racial difference as one might suppose, but because they were simply afraid of not being understood if they spoke Malay.
Turning around, Kak Ida pleaded with us to make the introductions and promised they would take it from there.
It proved unnecessary. The middle-aged gent had noticed their presence - they were a rather largish group and impossible to camouflage, dressed as they were in full-length headscarves and voluminous gowns on the first sunny day in over a week.
But his friendly smile was encouraging and their natural campaign instinct, sharpened through their many years on the trail, took over.
They explained who they were and what they were doing. They asked his name and MyKad number to check against the electoral roll, passed him a newsletter on Anwar Ibrahim, a VCD of his ceramah recordings, a miniature PKR flag and then moved on.
After they had left, the Chinese man turned to us and said in Hokkien, laughingly, "They don't even need to do this. The majority here will vote Anwar.
They've woken up."
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