Sg Limau must be the most picturesque by-election that I‘ve ever covered. Imagine this: you’ve exited the North-South Expressway via Gurun interchange and Waze (a mobile navigation app) on your smartphone shows that you’ve about a 20km drive to Sg Limau state constituency in Kedah.
You tell yourself you’ll know that you’re in Sg Limau constituency when you see flags of political parties.
As you drive pass rice fields as far as the eyes can see, you spot the blue of Barisan Nasional and the green of PAS flanking the single-lane road.
It is a gorgeous scene. You tell yourself that if you replaced the rice fields with vineyards, you would feel as if you were on holiday in rural France.
Welcome to the second by-election in Malaysia after the tense GE13 on May 5.
The seat is vacant after former Kedah Mentri Besar Tan Sri Azizan Abdul Razak, who held Sg Limau for 18 years, died on Sept 26.
To defend the PAS stronghold (or some would say Azizan’s stronghold), the party is fielding Mohd Azam Abdul Samat against Barisan’s Dr Ahmad Sohaimi Lazim of Umno.
Azam is the anak didikan (disciple) of the one-term Kedah mentri besar.
The 37-year-old Jerai PAS Youth chief is a director of the party-backed early education network Pusat Asuhan Tunas Islam (Pasti) Kedah. Dr Ahmad Sohaimi Lazim, 52, is a former Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris lecturer.
Azizan won the seat with a majority of 2,774 votes in a four-cornered fight that involved Barisan and two independents.
It was 3.02pm on Saturday and to get a sense of the constituency I had just entered, I stopped at a warung on the side of the road in Kampung Dulang Kecil.
While chatting with locals in the stall next to rice fields, I had a late lunch of ayam masak kicap, telur masak kurma, ikan kari and Rassa cream soda, a 100% Muslim product bottled in Alor Setar.
The locals were quite delighted that their “little constituency” was in the limelight.
On that day, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir were at nearby SMK Sungai Limau to give out goodies.
Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, announced RM1.4mil allocation for 12 schools and other projects for the Yan/Kuala Muda Education District.
“Is there any interesting ceramah to attend tonight?” I asked 35-year-old Zuraidah, the owner of Ida nasi campur and gulai itik food stall.
A must-attend ceramah, according to a rather excited Zuraidah, was that of Abby Abadi which would be held next door.
Playing dumb, I asked why.
“She’s an actress,” she said. “Bukan senang nak jumpa. Ramai yang minat Abby (It is not easy to see her. Many admire Abby),” she said.
Abby Abadi is a rather controversial character. The 36-year-old former member of the sizzling hot girl-group Elite (popular in the 1990s) and actress (Gerak Khas, a police drama) caused a stir when she embraced PAS in 2012.
At around 8.30pm, I returned to Kampung Dulang Kecil, about 35 km from Alor Setar, as I was curious to see Abby. And an hour later, the ceramah started with local PAS leaders giving speeches.
Interestingly, three unknown PAS politicians (one of them a Kuala Kedah youth chief) went on great lengths to explain to the 300-plus crowd on why the party supported the usage of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.
Zulhazmi Shariff, PAS Anti-Postal Summons Committee legal adviser, was rather comical about his opposition to the Automated Enforce-ment System (AES) and an Ustaz (whose named I can’t recall) was rather bitter about the Government’s removal of sugar subsidy.
The next speaker was the rather serious Khalil Abdul Hadi, the son of party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.
The only thing I remember about his speech is he is a rather handsome version of his father.
Then it was the turn of the main attraction of the ceramah (it seems Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad could not make it) – Abby Abadi.
She told the crowd that in her past cinta tak kena, kahwin tak kena (her love life and marriage – probably she was referring to Norman Hakim, her Gerak Khas co-star – failed).
She also explained why she joined PAS. “I actually never expected to be with PAS as I did not want to be sesat (lost),” she joked.
“That time I didn’t know much about PAS. All I knew about them was what I saw on TV.”
Abby Abadi said it all started when she saw enlightenment when she was in Mecca and later she was invited to explain her experience in a PAS ceramah.
Looking very unlike her glamour days, the tudung-clad Abby Abadi was still treated like a pop star by the mainly PAS crowd. It was drizzling but they stayed on to listen to her. And after her speech, they flocked to her to take photographs.
Earlier, I had a chat with Mohd Nasir Mustafa, the Kubang Rotan assemblyman. I asked the rather frank politician who would win Sg Limau.
“Insyallah, we can win the seat. It is a matter of majority,” he said.
Barring a shocker, Sg Limau will not turn from green to blue. – thestaronline
