00:00After a sluggish week of the Makuta by-election campaign, Amno's Syed Hussein Syed Abdullah's
00:08fluent Mandarin and Perikatan Nasional's Haizan Jafar's football obsession have been talking
00:14points.
00:15Haizan, known as Coach Haizan, has focused on sports, which resonates with the youth
00:21but lacks broader appeal, while Syed Hussein's fluency in Mandarin and his Chinese nickname,
00:26Sai Fu Sing, have given him an edge with the Chinese community.
00:31An Amno leader, who did not wish to be named, said Chinese voters play a crucial role in
00:37the by-election and the party is working hard to ensure a strong turnout from them.
00:42PN appears to be ignoring Chinese voters and focusing on predominantly Malay areas, with
00:49a PN leader who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying that the coalition hopes for a low
00:54Chinese voter turnout, believing it would secure their victory.
00:59Meanwhile, with Churamas losing appeal, PN has organised smaller-scale Churamas, while
01:05BN sticks to the traditional approach of visiting communities and its leaders, including Malay
01:11NGOs and village heads.
01:14A PN leader said Coach Haizan has been told to not constantly harp on about sports and
01:20focus on local issues.
01:23Similarly, an Amno leader said they have also told Syed Hussein to not oversell his Mandarin-speaking
01:29capabilities, highlighting that he needed to appeal not only to Chinese voters, but
01:34to Malay voters too.
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