Tenang now

The Tenang bi-election is just around the corner, on 30th January, to be exact. It is, in my opinion, somewhat difficult for the PAS candidate to win the Tenang seat.

The Tenang parliamentary seat in the state of Johor has about 40% of Chinese voters, and these Malaysian Chinese are quite weary of the frequent assertion from the opposition political of PAS, of turning Malaysia into an Islamic nation. The choice of the candidate, Normala, a teacher by profession, makes it more difficult. Normala seems to be very strongly attached to Islam. So strong, that she refuses to shake hands with males. It is a wonder how she is going to campaign with such a dilemma. Furthermore, a large number of Chinese could see this – the handshake refusal – as an indicator of an attempt to Islamize of the area by PAS.

If against all these odds Normala did win the bi-election, it will be very interesting to watch how she handles the on rush of people trying to congratulate her by shaking her hands!