Machap is declared to have a by-election soon. Perhaps many Malaysians are not aware of the location of this place. Many of my friends said they would not have stepped foot on such place if not because of my election in 1999. Today we still have a sweet memory of this remote part of our country.
At that time I stood against the then Deputy Education Minister Fong Chan Onn in the parliament seat known as Selandar. Now the seat is renamed Parliament Alor Gajah. This seat was the cradle of electoral struggle for me and many of my friends. Some of them were still studying in universities then or freshly graduated.
It was my first election in life and it was a tough campaign but truly enjoyable one.
We fought hard and gave Fong a good run for the race. At the end I lost by 10 thousand votes. Although it looked like a big margin, in fact Fong’s majority was cut down by half from the previous general election. In 1995, Fong won with a comfortable margin of 20 thousand over votes.
This began a long and difficult process of party building in the division of Selandar (in 2004 it was renamed Alor Gajah). There were 5 state seats in Selandar: Pulau Sebang, Bukit Sedanan, Durian Tunggal, Rembia, Bukit Asahan.
Bukit Sedanan was renamed Machap in 2004 EC’s reboundary. The naming of a constituency in fact divulges the tacit collaboration (or subservience) of the EC and the ruling parties.
The present state seat (DUN) was called Tebong in 1986. The seat was held by MIC then. The highest concentration of Inidan voters were in Tebong. In 1995, Poh Ah Tiam, MCA ADUN of Pulau Sebang was transferred here. The seat was named Bukit Sedanan. Poh Ah Tiam who originated from Durian Tunggal moved his family to Machap New Village. In 2004, the seat was named after his main support base Machap.
Voters in this constituency proportionally reflect the population mix of our country. Throughout the years, its ethnic ratio has always been forty over percent Chinese and Malay respectively with some 15% Indian. The naming adds to the public perception of the constituency. It is interesting that the EC collaborated well with the ruling parties to suit their seat allocation formula.