The Malay enclave accounts for a large number of voters in the constituency, and several of them told FMT in recent interviews that they were depressed by the presence of too many foreigners in the district.
A 68-year-old voter who called himself Wagimin said he had lived in Kampung Baru for more than 40 years and had seen its face changed almost beyond recognition in the last 10 years.
“If you take a look at the weekly market in Kampung Baru, it’s now controlled by Indonesians,” he said. “Their numbers have been growing.”
He said restaurants that once sold traditional local food had been taken over by Indonesians and Thais. “And this is supposed to be a Malay reserve area.”
A plan to develop the 121.8ha enclave, estimated to be worth billions of ringgit, has been frustrated by overlapping title claims, and this decades-old problem could delay the realisation of a modern Kampung Baru.
Asked which party he would support in the May 9 polls in a possible three-cornered fight among Umno, PPBM and PAS, Wagimin said he would vote for whichever party could prove that it had kept its promises in the past.
Johari Abdul Ghani of Umno is the incumbent for the Titiwangsa seat. He won less than 51% of the votes in his 2013 contest against PAS’ Ahmad Zamri Asa’ad Khuzaimi.
Another voter, Zulkifli Johar Arifin, 64, said it was hard to tell which party would win Titiwangsa on May 9 because “people here have different views”.
He shared Wagimin’s feelings about foreigners in the area, saying they made the locals feel that their livelihood was threatened.
He, too, complained about the takeover of restaurants by Indonesians and Thais, claiming the issue was the main concern of voters in the area.
A 27-year-old man named Shafie acknowledged that Kampung Baru had been benefiting from infrastructure development, but said he too was unhappy that too many foreigners were doing business there and depriving the locals of their livelihood.
But 60-year-old Rosmawati, who is part Indonesian, said anyone willing to work hard could earn a living in Kampung Baru.
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