Battling for the hearts and minds of the Chinese Johoreans.

A FEW days ago, DAP lawmaker Yeo Bee Yin bid a tearful farewell to her supporters in Damansara Utama when she confirmed that she would be moving from Selangor to contest in her homestate of Johor.

The Chinese vernacular media has indicated that Yeo may be fielded in the Bakri parliamentary seat which is considered a safe one for DAP.

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Yeo’s father was reported to have said that the iron tree in their Segamat home had bloomed during Chinese New Year and he saw it as a good omen because the last time it happened, Yeo was about to head off to Cambridge University.

DAP has begun shuffling its cards to move more of their heavyweights into Johor to give a boost to the party’s quest to make further inroads into the state.

There has been so much hype about Johor being Pakatan Harapan’s frontline state in the general election.

But the real battleground is in the seats where Chinese voters could determine which way the seats go.

There are some 30 such parliamentary and state seats and the stage is set for another face-off between DAP and MCA, the two parties battling for the Chinese hearts and minds in the country.

Actually, DAP has won almost all the Chinese seats in Johor. The 2013 Chinese tsunami delivered a total of 13 state seats and four parliamentary seats to the party.

But politics is about power and the party knows that to cement their place at the top of the Chinese mountain, it needs to take down state MCA strongman Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong in Ayer Hitam.

The contest shaping up between the MCA deputy president and Johor DAP chairman Liew Chin Tong has already captured public imagination. The outcome of that contest could shape Chinese politics in Johor in the coming years.

Ayer Hitam, a nondescript town where agriculture is still the mainstay occupation, will be some sort of bellwether seat.

If it falls, then it means that the Chinese tsunami is still rolling on and MCA’s future will be cloudy in Johor and elsewhere.

But if Dr Wee manages to hold back the DAP challenge, then it could mean the start of a comeback for his party which has had a horrible time since 2008.

The political chatter in DAP is that Liew, currently Kluang MP, may also contest the Bekok state seat which is adjacent to Ayer Hitam. Bekok is a Chinese-majority state seat within the Labis parliamentary seat which MCA vice-president Datuk Chua Tee Yong won by only 353 votes.

Kulai MP and lawyer Teo Nie Ching is scheduled to contest in Yong Peng, one of the two state seats in Ayer Hitam, to provide back-up for Liew.

The party is also said to be toying with the idea of fielding Teo in Labis to take on Chua.

In other words, she will hold up the state seat in Ayer Hitam for Liew while Liew will hold up the Bekok state seat for her in Labis.

They will be the Bonnie and Clyde couple in DAP’s bid to dominate the Chinese battleground. The strategy sounds brilliant except that the mood in the small towns of Johor today is quite different from that in 2013.

There are rumblings on the Chinese ground and the feedback from Chinese press reporters is that not all Chinese voters in Johor want to change the state government.

This may result in split voting among the Chinese – state to Barisan Nasional, parliament to Pakatan. A segment of them are not convinced that Pakatan is a worthy replacement for Barisan. They are probably waiting for the candidate line-up and also who Pakatan will put up as their Mentri Besar.

They are also not impressed with the service record of some of the Pakatan lawmakers. They can now compare the service they used to get to what they are getting now.

The mood is not like before. When DAP tried to hold a kopitiam event featuring Lim Kit Siang in Chaah, a small town surrounded by thriving new villages in Labis, the coffeeshop owner agreed but told them: “No speeches.”

Some of the local folk have openly told Chua that they will support him this time.

Chua’s DAP rivals used to ridicule him, saying he has to work hard because of his narrow win. Chua is an intelligent and diligent politician and he had searched his soul to try to understand the 2013 election outcome.

“You can ask my voters, I am there for them on issues of education, welfare, temples. I am not just a festival YB. Even if you win by five votes, you have got to serve the electorate, you are still the MP,” said the Australia-trained accountant.

The first big show of force between the two sides will take place tomorrow. DAP is bringing in its top guns nationwide to celebrate the party’s 52nd anniversary in Yong Peng.

MCA will launch its Team Johor machinery in Johor Jaya, a state seat that MCA intends to take back from DAP.

The rivalry between DAP and MCA is as old as the history of electoral politics in Malaysia but it has taken on an extra-urgent tone in battleground Johor.

– ANN