Chapter 7 - Kuantan, Pahang: Revealing the Ordinary

Summary

Kuantan, the ninth largest city in Malaysia, is the state capital of Pahang. In most dimensions the city is fairly average by Malaysian standards. The state as a whole ranked eighth of thirteen states in Malaysia in terms of growth rate for 2009–12 (4.4 per cent) as well as incidence of poverty (1.3 per cent) (Jabatan Perangkaan Malaysia 2013, pp. 3, 9). In terms of voters' racial demographics, Kuantan's parliamentary area has a slightly higher than the national average percentage of Chinese voters and slightly lower than average percentage of both Malay and Indian voters. One state seat (Teruntum) in Kuantan has a non-Malay majority, while one, Inderapura, is nearly entirely Malay. Heated up by a looming local environmental issue, the recent general elections in Kuantan, in which Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) on the Pakatan Rakyat (Pakatan) side took on the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) on the Barisan Nasional (BN) side, were fundamentally average, and thus a good microcosm of Malaysian electoral politics.

Three notable aspects distinguished the campaigns in Kuantan: the issue of the Lynas rare earths plant, the campaign's ‘anchoring’ to Prime Minister Najib Razak and the candidates' emphasis on a ‘personal touch’. The progress of these campaigns sheds light on what are considered to be general trends of Malaysian politics and reveals the mechanics behind what is considered to be the ‘ordinary’ of Malaysian electoral dynamics.

Progress of the campaign

Kuantan has typically been a relatively calm district in terms of politics and has had a strong BN presence, much like most of the rest of the country. It has rarely been the subject of debate among Malaysians not from there. However, one issue arose in 2011 that changed all of this: the Lynas issue, which put Kuantan on Malaysia's political map.