The parliamentary constituency is among the strongest Umno bastions in Johor, but Amanah is taking inspiration from the gallantry of soldiers on both sides of the WW2 conflict.
Parit Sulong Amanah chief Khairuddin Abd Rahim said his party was determined to give a fierce fight and claimed that it had an even chance.
Former deputy human resources minister Noraini Ahmad is the current MP for Parit Sulong. She also chairs the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade).
Khairuddin told FMT that Johor Amanah would use everything in its arsenal to engage the enemy in Parit Sulong and Pulai, the only two parliamentary battle arenas in the state where it will fight on behalf of Pakatan Harapan.
He claimed that in Parit Sulong, at least, the chances for victory was good. Support for Pakatan, especially from the Malays, was increasing, he said.
He referred to the attendance at last month’s Pakatan rally in Sri Medan, which is a state constituency within Parit Sulong.
“About 2,000 to 3,000 people showed up,” he said. “To me this is a good achievement as far as drawing Malay support is concerned.”
He also claimed that there was now a bigger shift of Malay support away from Umno than during the Reformasi era in the late 1990s. In the 1999 general election, Barisan Nasional suffered an appreciable drop in popular votes.
“It is not impossible that we will see an even bigger change this time,” he said.
Khairuddin was the PAS candidate for Parit Sulong in GE13. He noted that he managed to reduce Noraini’s majority to 11,753 votes. In the 12th general election, Noraini won against PAS by 13,599 votes.
But according to Khairuddin, PAS will not be a strong contender for the seat in GE14. “The real contest will be between PH and BN,” he said.
Currently, Umno also occupies the Sri Medan seat as well as Semerah, the other state seat within Parit Sulong.