By Niza Shimi
As the general elections silly season is in full swing, political parties are taking very different strategies to attract those undecided voters, especially among first-time young voters. Kudos to the seasoned politicians who are making way for new blood.
After a tumultuous period of political shenanigans since 2018, voters might want some new faces to choose from. In the midst of some political parties still adamant about fielding the same tired aging politicians, some surprises are emerging.
Take Nur Fathiah Syazwana Shaharudin, better known as Cleopatra, who recently announced that she intends to join the political fray as an independent candidate for the Batu Parliamentary seat this 15th general election (GE15).
Batu is fast becoming crowded with the lawyer and activist Siti Zabedah Kasim, or better known as Siti Kasim, already been named as the candidate for the Gerak Independent (GI) coalition. Both Cleopatra and Siti Kasim are new faces in politics.
The first time Cleopatra made waves in the news was when a video of her meeting with then Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman went viral.
The eye-catching Cleopatra threw netizens into a frenzy that Syed Saddiq had to do some mansplaining that she wasn’t transgender, wasn’t his personal assistant, and is a mother of two (Astro Awani October 20, 2019). I'm not sure why those issues merit explanation.
Perhaps Syed Saddiq, being single and eligible, tends to drive his adoring fans into a frenzy for any reason anyway. A visit from a pretty lady would certainly add to the hormonal fever of netizens. Cleopatra could use the mileage. Now she’s a known entity by association.
Will it be a clash of the divas in Batu? The incumbent is P. Prabakaran, who won as an independent but later joined Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). Former MP for Batu, Chua Tian Chiang, better known as Tian Chua, is hoping to reclaim his seat. Other parties have yet to name their candidates.
Kudos to the Democratic Action Party (DAP) for daring to drop old faces such as Tony Pua (MP for Damansara) who decided to sit out GE15. He will be replaced by Gobind Singh Deo whose Puchong seat will be defended by former Minister Yeo Bee Yin.
Yeo was named by DAP deputy secretary-general Liew Chin Tong in his book "Lim Kit Siang - Patriot, Leader, Fighter" who claimed that PM Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad wanted to drop energy, science, technology, and climate change minister Yeo Bee Yin from his Cabinet.
Liew wrote, "Dr. Mahathir wanted to remove Yeo as the energy, science, technology, and climate change minister over her defiance on Lynas and other environmental issues." The rest, as they say, is history. The Pakatan Harapan government collapsed after 22 months in power with the resignation of Tun Dr. Mahathir.
Another interesting new face is Shahredzan Johan who has been named as the DAP candidate for Bangi in its new strategy to allow more Malay candidates. Lawyer Shahredzan is better known as the political secretary for DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang. Bangi is considered a DAP safe seat with incumbent MP Ong Kian Ming opting to sit out GE15.
Shahredzan is also the son of former Utusan Malaysia group editor Tan Sri Johan Jaafar. Bangi was a new constituency created in 2018 with 48.6% Malay, 36.8% Chinese, and 11.1% Indians. It will be interesting to see if the DAP strategy to field a Malay candidate will be a winning one.
Let’s hope more new faces will be announced by all political parties for GE15.
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