Young candidates eyeing Hang Tuah Jaya parliamentary seat

MELAKA: It is interesting to observe the Hang Tuah Jaya parliamentary seat in the 15th General Election (GE15) as four young candidates aged between 33 and 41 years will be participating in the democratic process.

The four candidates are Adam Adli Abd Halim, 33, from Pakatan Harapan (PH), UMNO Hang Tuah Jaya division chief Datuk Mohd Ridhwan Mohd Ali, 36, from Barisan Nasional (BN), Pejuang leadership council deputy chief Sheikh Ikhzan Sheikh Salleh, 40, and businessman Mohd Azrudin Md Idris, 41, from Perikatan Nasional (PN-Bersatu).

Three candidates namely Mohd Ridhwan, Sheikh Ikhzan and Mohd Azrudin are local candidates while Adam Adli is imported, and only Azrudin has contested as a candidate for Tangga Batu constituency in the Melaka state election (PRN) last year but lost, while the others are contesting for the first time.

The four with different backgrounds, from political activist, lawyer, senator and businessman will try to win the hearts of 118,493 voters to serve as their representative in the Dewan Rakyat.

According to Sheikh Ikhzan of Pejuang, the constituents in Tuah Jaya parliamentary comprise 60 per cent Malays, Chinese (30 per cent) while the rest are Indians and other races who would pose a challenge to the young candidates in attracting their attention as generally the voters here are highly educated.

"So, voters will look at the candidate's criteria and experience whether this person (candidate) can lead the country as well as their parliamentary constituency.

"For me, a leader has to have the courage to speak up (for the community in his constituency) and secondly he needs to know what are the problems faced by the people in Hang Tuah Jaya (which are diverse)," he told Bernama.

The former Melaka Bar Committee chairman said that although Hang Tuah Jaya parliamentary is an urban seat, it also has suburbs and villages, therefore it presents its own challenge to whoever wins the seat in GE15.

He said among the problems he identified are the narrow village roads, the frequency of shuttle buses from the village to the city and the lack of broadband access in some villages even though they are close to the city.

"Apart from that, the problems of traders and hawkers in some tourism focus areas also need attention because we are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Ridhwan said the people in the Hang Tuah Jaya constituency need a leader who not only has good character but is also able to help solve their problems immediately.

"The character of this leader also plays a role. If the person is not friendly or approachable, it would be difficult to solve problems in Hang Tuah Jaya parliamentary.

He said the people need to a elect representative who is able to be the link between the state and federal governments from the same party to make it easier for them to solve problems as best as possible.

"If there is a platform as a member of Parliament I can speak directly, follow up and if the government continues to be administered by BN, maybe we can ask for other bigger platforms so that we can help expedite all the development here," he said.

In the meantime, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Melaka branch Communication and Media Studies senior lecturer Shafezah Abdul Wahab said despite the popularity of young candidates in the Hang Tuah Jaya parliamentary on social media, local candidates have their own advantages to capture the hearts of voters in the area.

She said the political parties' strategy of putting young people in the running this time is very interesting because of the change in people's thinking post-GE14 and the elderly population are more technology literate.

-- BERNAMA