The P 94

This weekend, Hulu Selangor will be a happening place. In fact, it has attracted many from afar and the whole place is like a carnival, I hear. Empty houses are taken up for temporary use, to house campaign centres as well as supporters. The P94 war is on.

MCA had won the Parliamentary seat in the early days. Tin mining was the main activity there then, so I suppose it was only logical to field a Chinese in the polls, since most mining activities were done by the Chinese. In 1986, the seat was allotted to MIC, with Datuk S.S. Subramaniam as M.P.. Was there a change in the make-up of the races? Perhaps. After Palanivel, Hulu Selangor was won over by P.K.R.'s (the late) Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad in 2008. He was an UMNO guy before joining P.K.R.

From the interviews (in the media)lately, the people of Hulu Selangor voiced out their need for jobs and development in the area; and in the two years the P.K.R. has taken over, not much development (apart from massage parlours, according to them)has taken place. All the development that is there were from the 'Barisan' years, they said. Youth from that area have had to leave the place to get decent jobs.

I ponder at this, and wonder what kind of development people want? Not shopping complexes, surely! Not more temples and schools, voiced someone (in an NST article) who said 'we are not all saints and scholars'.     

Yet in another NST interview, an old couple was displeased (and why shouldn't they?) about how their jasmine plantation was acquired to make way for some stalls. The stalls have since been abandoned and they no longer have land for their source of income. The young do not have jobs and have turned to loitering to pass their time. And all these hadn't happened in just the last two years.

I have often gone to Kuala Kubu Baru to get to Fraser's, to visit the serene Darul Quran, to visit the old folk's home in Rasa,to a kenduri in Serendah, just for a day's outing from Gombak-Ulu Yam-Batang Kali and have found these places quaint and very, very, delightful -- to an outsider.

But the locals cannot just live on the quaintness of a place. They need jobs; or opportunities to be employed. They don't want handouts, but a catalyst to start a venture. So, can Kamalanathan be their saviour? Or Zaid?

It's interesting to see, this Sunday.