2 May 2015: Good morning Malaysia. It’s 6 am and I am going to Permatang Pauh.
3 May 2015: Today we had four events this morning till late noon. We started at 8.30 with a Kampung Belah Dua surau event where we had a husband and wife cooking competition, a child colouring event and free medical check up.
Then we went to a fishing competition in Permatang Nibong. We had about 170 participants. Yesterday, BN had their fishing event with only 27 participants. This event was really fun.
Then I attended a kenduri kahwin in the same kampung. The food was excellent, we had nasi campur, laksa penang and ais kacang. Then at 1 pm we joined a sepak takraw event.
I have been assigned to look after this kampung, 97% Malay area of 3,600 voters. My Kelantanese roots are handy here. We are making steady progress here. This area was won by UMNO in 2013 at 54%.
At 5pm, we went and did a gotong royong of the local mosque. We basically worked for 2 hours to clean up their clogged drain which is full of sand and silt.
4 May 2015: We visited kampung houses walking along the beautiful paddy fields. Farm houses are far apart in the kampung. Our intention is simple, to talk to the voters and gauge who they will vote. It is also a chance to tell our side of the story.
At night, at the ceramah the crowd had grown to be around 75 persons. I did two powerpoint presentations and I think we managed to introduce some wow factor to the campaign. We had the first clear indication that the kampung was warming up to our campaign.
5 May 2015: I told my team to switch campaign to Taman Siakap where YB Gooi Hsiao Leung was in charge. On the way, we dropped by the famous St Anne’s Church in Bukit Mertajam. Deborah, my former staff and being the only Catholic in the group, did a special prayer for Kak Wan’s victory. Taman Siakap is an urban area, a middle class housing estate in Seberang Jaya. We joined YB Gooi for more door to door campaigning along with Nurul Nuha who charmed voters and asked for their support. My team managed to squeeze in some fun playing football with local kids.
6 May 2015: Last day of campaigning. We continued with door to door campaigning. The people we approached seem to have made up their mind. You get a sense of calm, the calm before the actual storm. We continued to work in Taman Siakap for most part of the day. Kak Wan dropped by for a cooking event at around 5pm. We packed up and went to the big finale ceramah and heard Rafizi Ramli, Azmin Ali and Mat Sabu give powerful speeches.
We went back to KL that very night arriving at 4 am. On election day, 7 May 2015, my team and I learnt that our 5 days and 5 nights in Permatang Nibong had resulted in a 5% swing. We had improved from 2013, we overturned UMNO’s 54% and made Permatang Nibong a PKR district at 51%.
Lawan Sampai Menang!