Not just a joker, there's more to Peja than meets the eye, says close friend

Sitting at his eatery in Tambun, Perak, Hamid laughs as he recalls his years of friendship with Ahmad Faizal Azumu, the Perikatan Nasional candidate looking to defend his seat there in the Nov 19 polls. 

His ties with Faizal began when they were both children in Kampung Manjoi. 

About two decades ago, Faizal, who is known by his nickname Peja, became active in politics as part of the Umno Youth wing. 

"He was in Ipoh Barat, I was in Gopeng," Hamid recalled. "We always went to Umno assemblies in Kuala Lumpur together."  

But it was Faizal's sense of humour that made him stand out, even as he was carrying out his duties, his friend said. 

Sometimes, this landed him in trouble with those who said that such a frivolous attitude showed a lack of leadership skills.

Hamid however brushed this aside, saying underneath his humour, Faizal was in fact a professional and capable leader. 

"He's good at hiding his emotions," he said. "He always looks happy and calm. He fools around and laughs to hide his pressure and all of the emotions that other people don't know about.

"That's why he sings and does the joget. He's just naturally a happy and positive person."  

Hamid said this was why it was unfair to judge his friend based solely on social media videos of him singing and dancing.

At work, he said, Faizal was actually very serious and focused, and would not move on to other matters until the task at hand was done. 

Bringing down the temperature in Tambun

Faizal's campaign in Tambun so far has been characterised by creative posters with slogans that satirise the fight between him and his main competitor, Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Anwar Ibrahim. 

At one of his ceramahs, Faizal said he ran his campaign that way as a response to PH's campaigns which he said were often angry and heated. 

"Why so angry?" he said. "Be cool. I put up funny posters to bring down the temperature in Tambun. Why stress?"

A youth named Ahmad who said he had been involved in several programmes with Faizal said he and his friends found it easy to work with the youth and sports minister.

He said Faizal had never looked down on them even though they were only "kampung boys".

"When he works, he isn't like a boss," Ahmad said. "He listens to our suggestions. Sometimes he rejects them too, but he always listens first. 

"He doesn't treat us like kids, he treats us like friends. It's a bit funny to be friends with a minister, but he is really cool." 
 
He, too, said that Faizal should not be judged by his cover. 

"He has a lot of good points that he doesn't show in public," he said.