In Selangor state seat, PKR man to face 'PN wave' in attempt for third term

In 2013, Mohd Khairuddin Othman won the race for the state seat of Paya Jaras in Selangor, beating his contender from Umno with 57.25% of the general election vote. 

Khairuddin, who represented PAS at the time, was voted in for a second time at the next election in 2018, by which point he had switched camps and was running as a PKR candidate instead. 

The state exco for youth, sports and human capital development won 20,376 votes, defeating his opponents from Umno and PAS with a majority of 12,072. 

Now, Khairuddin is looking to defend his seat once more, going up against Ab Halim Tamuri from his old party PAS and independent candidate Nurhaslinda Basri at the Selangor election this weekend. 

Influencer Dediy Sulaiman, arguably the most well-known resident in Paya Jaras, said the voters in the constituency had voted Khairuddin in for a second term due to his record of service as a state assemblyman. 

"They voted in favour of the candidate even though he switched parties," Dediy, who has lived in Paya Jaras for 25 years and is known for his social media channel "DD Chronicle", added. 

Speaking to MalaysiaNow, he said Khairuddin had been active in meeting with the residents and tackling local problems. 

Around 2018 to 2019, though, his record took a hit from the issue of housing along the river reserve, where dozens of homes were slated for demolition.

"He promised that he would defend the villagers," Dediy said. "If a bulldozer or heavy machinery came, he would be the first to lie in its path."

But on the day itself, he said, Khairuddin was nowhere to be found. Attempts to contact him were also in vain. 

According to Dediy, this marked the start of the villagers' loss of faith in Khairuddin.

'PN wave'

Khairuddin's former party, PAS, was part of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition in 2013 when he won the Paya Jaras seat for the first time. 

Now, the Islamist party is under federal opposition pact Perikatan Nasional (PN), which took the country by surprise at the last general election in November, winning a large chunk of the Malay vote and claiming victory in a number of parliamentary seats previously held by Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH). 

PN, which comprises Bersatu and Gerakan in addition to PAS, will be in the limelight this weekend as it seeks to further its gains in the six election-facing states, three of which are already under its administration. 

Dediy, a member of the Paya Jaras Umno branch, said many areas in the constituency were already "submerged" in the "PN wave". 

Nevertheless, he said that nothing could be said for certain. 

"Maybe it's just loud rumbling and in the end, no rain will fall," he said. 

"What we hear is from the hardcore supporters, but we don't know where the fence sitters will turn." 

Dediy added however that the Umno grassroots appeared unenthused about supporting the PH candidate. 

He said many Umno members from the Paya Jaras branch had been campaigning in support of the party's machinery in Kuang, where the candidate is from BN, while on nomination day, support from key Umno leaders for Khairuddin had been minimal. 

Shafiq Rusli, a resident of Bandar Baru Sungai Buloh, said he had gone to Khairuddin with complaints about land but received no response from his office. 

For the past few years, he said, a plot of land in his residential area had been used as an illegal parking lot for industrial trucks. 

"My neighbour and I went to the assemblyman's office together with the owner of the illegal parking lot," he said. 

"We agreed to resolve the matter but until now, there has been no news about a solution." 

In March, he wrote to Khairuddin enquiring about the matter, but received no response. 

He also met the assemblyman during a Hari Raya open house but again received no answer. 

Shafiq said he was eventually blocked from the Facebook account for the Paya Jaras state representative's office ahead of the state election. 

MalaysiaNow has reached out to Khairuddin and is awaiting a response.