It is largely believed that the move is meant to make DAP more appealing to Malay voters - who in 2018, made up almost 58 percent of the constituency’s electorate. On paper, if Sheikh Umar can get 10 to 15 percent of Malay votes and maintain a majority of support from the Chinese community - which has been a vote bank for DAP - he could win Ayer Hitam for Pakatan Harapan.

However, observations by Malaysiakini on the ground indicate that things aren’t going as planned.  While Sheikh Umar has been hard at work since before nomination day, meeting and greeting voters at Malay villages and warong (stalls) - and was received politely - many were not familiar with him.

During one meet-and-greet session, many of those he shook hands with asked where he was from, while a few of them, including some Harapan supporters, knew that he was the Paloh assemblyperson elected in 2018. Among the few who recognised the DAP candidate was a traditional kuda kepang performer Hazim Mohamad, who recalled meeting Sheikh Umar during the Ayer Hitam Puteh Festival in 2018.

The festival was organised by Sheikh Umar when he was a Johor state exco member in charge of the creative economy for 22 months.  Hazim had welcomed Sheikh Umar and other Harapan campaigners to his house in Kampung Parit Bingan before introducing them to a nearby warong. 

Kampung Parit Bingan is located under the Semarang state seat, about a 10-minute drive from Ayer Hitam town and the main toll exit. In many kampung parit (trench villages) in Ayer Hitam and many parts of Johor, most of the residents are of Javanese descent and still speak the language.

But while Sheikh Umar can speak some of this dialect, he is not very fluent. Instead, another DAP leader, Selangor state assembly speaker Ng Suee Lim - who is famous for his fluencywho is famous for his fluency in Javanese - served as the lubricant between Sheikh Umar and the locals.

While visiting the warong in the village, Ng would urge locals to vote for the Ayer Hitam hopeful - while also criticising BN for being corrupt. At one warong, Sheikh Umar also delivered a brief speech to the 20 locals and introduced himself as a “Malay youth candidate” and asked for their support.

Sticking with familiarity

YellowRusa5552 : That's the problem with BN stronghold like this, the diehard supporters just cannot see things beyond their surrounding. To them voting BN is like hereditary trait that cannot be broken, passed down from their grandfather's.

These people will probably wake up in ten years time, when the country cannot sustain the kind of looting and corruption by BN and the country go broke and bankrupt!

Robbed!! : Just dont understand why the Malays are so obsessed with race religion and BN. They just cannot seee the bigger picture where the nation is heading

SAVE MALAYSIA : Maybe most of them are 'kurang cerdik'...not wake up yet..like some of chinese old folks...

Nona888 : Mana tau, pada 10 malam 19 Nov, PH akan menang. Masa kempen, pengundi tak nak tunjuk pilihan sebenar.

Demi Rakyat : To save Malaysia from the corrupts, hope things will change over the next week or so. ABU! Oh, MCA is nothing more than a "division" of Ummo, another "woof, woof". Hidup Rakyat! Hidup Malaysia!