JOHOR BARU, May 4 ― The return of Malaysian voters living and working in neighbouring Singapore will be a “significant factor” to watch out for in this tomorrow’s polls, regional observers have said.
Columnist Karim Raslan pointed out an estimated 400,000 Malaysians live and work in Singapore, with many of them hailing from Johor, one of the hottest states in the 13th general election.
He described the problems faced by voters originating from Johor, including rising property prices and cost of living, which he attributed to the Iskandar Malaysia economic region in southern Johor.
“At the same time and over the past few years Singaporeans as a whole have become increasingly politicized, as they’ve had to battle spiralling house prices, inflationary pressures and a deluge of foreigners.
“Many of these challenges are similar to those facing Johoreans as [Iskandar’s] dramatic growth spurt boosts the local economy,” the regional observer said in a text message to The Malaysian Insider yesterday.
When asked about the possible impact on polls that would be brought about by the Malaysians living across the Causeway, Karim said: “It’s anticipated that many will be ethnic Chinese and their political preferences will be fairly easy to determine.”
Well-respected local academic Dr Farish A. Noor said Malaysians returning from Singapore could play a huge role in areas where candidates previously won by slim margins.
“If the seats are marginal they may make an enormous difference.
“Remember that, at the last election, some seats were won with only a few hundred majority,” the associate professor from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) told The Malaysian Insider yesterday.
Farish also said that Malaysians in Singapore did not come solely from Johor, the country’s southernmost state.
“There are Malaysians working and studying in Singapore, but not all of them will be voting in Johor ― as many will also be trying to get to Selangor, Penang, Sabah, Sarawak, etc.
“The problem now is the availability of bus and flight tickets, and also the fact that many of those working in the service industry in jobs like cleaning, gardening, drivers, waiters etc may not be given leave to return.”
He also commented on how the sentiments of the citizens in Singapore and Malaysia, two countries separated by only narrow body of water known as the Straits of Johor, play off each other.
“The enthusiasm is there and Singaporeans are also watching the developments closely, for the rise of political awareness in Malaysia has an impact on political awareness in Singapore as well, I think.”
As the clock ticks down on the country’s most intense polls battle, tickets at airlines, railway and bus companies have been snapped up by Malaysians eager to make their voices heard.
Bersih Singapore co-ordinator Ong Guan Sin told The Malaysian Insider today that around 300 to 400 people had signed up for its carpool matching service, with registration for the service already closed, while the polls reform group also has one Penang-bound coach under its Jom Balik Undi (JBU) initiative.
A Facebook group that appeared to be independent from Bersih Singapore titled “Jom Balik Undi ― Kluang / Ayer Hitam / Sembrong” stated in an April 30 posting that 130 bus tickets sponsored by donors have been issued to those wishing to vote in the three federal seats stated above.
Kluang’s DAP candidate Liew Chin Tong recently told The Malaysian Insider that an estimated 20 per cent of voters there work in Singapore, saying that he was counting on them in his contest against MCA’s Hou Kok Chung.
The Kluang federal seat is considered one of the marginal seats in Johor, with Hou defeating DAP’s Ng Lam Hua in 2008 by only 3,781 votes, a considerably smaller win compared to MCA’s 18,698 vote-majority in 2004.
Lured by the strength of the Singapore dollar, some Malaysians brave the traffic jams and commute daily to the island state to work.
Local civil society groups have been ramping up efforts to urge them to come back to vote, as Malaysians in Singapore have been excluded from the newly-introduced postal voting for overseas voters.
The Election Commission (EC) similarly did not include Malaysians living in Brunei, southern Thailand and Kalimantan in Indonesia ― all located close to Malaysia.
The actual number of registered Malaysian voters living in these four areas is unknown.
Some 13.3 million Malaysians are eligible to vote tomorrow, with around three million of them being first-time voters.