The house-to-house campaign was the Sepanggar MP’s idea to meet his constituents face-to-face and know their needs and grouses.
For many families, Jumat’s visits in the evenings and weekends throughout 2017 were unexpected but they readily shared with the first term MP about what they wanted done.
“More than half of the families I spoke to requested assistance like cement and building materials to enable them to repair their houses,” he said.
Other concerns included requesting for street lighting and improving drainage.
For Jumat, the visits also enabled his constituency office staff to update their database on the location of voters.
“Just as important it was a way for us to show the people in practical ways that Barisan Nasional (BN) is a caring government and listens to them,” he said.
Since becoming an MP, Jumat has been doing a lot of listening to folk in his constituency of about 500sq km.
Nearly double the size of Penang island, Sepanggar stretches from the coastal areas fronting the South China Sea to remote villages along the Crocker Range.
He has been making it a point to attend events such as weddings and festive open houses throughout Sepanggar, which is made up of the Inanam and Karambunai state constituencies.
For him, attending these events are not to “show face” but opportunities for him to meet his constituents and talk to them in an informal setting.
After listening, he has raised their issues in parliament and they include the massive traffic snarls along Jalan Sulaman and the frequent flooding in areas like Menggatal and Telipok.
“I’ve been raising these problems since the first year as MP and the solution is coming,” he said, adding that flood mitigation work would soon be underway at Sungai Rampaian and Sungai Madsiang.
The traffic jam problem was being addressed with a recent announcement of the widening of Jalan Sulaman and the construction of flyovers at certain intersections.
Despite his accomplishments, some of his constituents are still wondering about Jumat’s future and whether he will be chosen to defend the Sepanggar seat in the coming polls.
Jumat, who has headed the Sepanggar Umno division since 2008, won the seat with a 9,442-vote majority, polling 22,845 votes against DAP’s Jeffrey Kumin who secured 13,403 ballots.
Others in the race for the Sepanggar seat then were SAPP’s Chong Hon Kiong who polled 4,070 votes while Daniel John Jambun of STAR had to settle for 1,931 votes.
The Sepanggar seat has about 62,000 voters of whom about 51% are Muslim Bumiputera, 26% Chinese and 21% non-Muslim Bumiputera.
Speculation about Jumat’s political future and whether he would again be fielded as the BN candidate for Sepanggar surfaced after he was suspended from Umno for three years in 2015 after he criticised Chief Minister Musa Aman in a Facebook post.
Of late, talk around the Sepanggar constituency is that Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan, a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, could replace Jumat as the BN candidate there.
Asked about this, Jumat said he would respect any decision of the BN leadership.
“What I’ve done over the past five years is to ensure a stronger presence and acceptance of Barisan among the people,” he said.
“I think I’ve achieved that and I would like to serve another term,” said Jumat, adding that he was contented just to serve as MP.
“The Prime Minister has said that BN wants winnable and likeable candidates, those who have served their constituents well. I’d like to think I’m qualified,” he added.