ABOUT two months ago, Ru­­­- zita Abu Yazid, 50, found out just how important security was.

There was a gang fight between Malays and Indians near her house in Sungai Petani and Ruzita, who moves around on a motorcycle, couldn’t leave her home for a few days. There were police roadblocks in her area and people were about with parang.

She was frightened.

“A customer called and wanted to meet me but I didn’t dare go out. Now I know security and being able to earn a living peacefully are what matter most,” she says.

Ruzita, who is single, has friends of different races, and is one who feels people in her state, regardless of race, get along fine.

She doesn’t follow political developments in the country all that much and stresses that she is “not a political fanatic”.

“If Barisan Nasional does something wrong, I will say it’s wrong. And if Pakatan Rakyat does something bad, I will say it’s bad. It doesn’t matter which party it is, if it’s wrong, it’s wrong,” she says.

Her 19-year-old colleague, Kelven Chow, drives a second-hand car he had bought from an uncle for RM8,000.

He lived in Kuala Lumpur before and is happy to be back in Sungai Petani, where there is no traffic jam and food is cheap.

“I don’t mind living here when I get married,” he says.

Right now, he is living with his parents and is able to save 50% to 60% of his income, which he plans to use for college.

At 19, Chow cannot vote yet but he says he does follow a bit of what’s going on in the country.

“I do worry that the country’s external debt is going up,” he says.

Different expectations: Chow (left) with Ruzita in Sg Petani. Ruzita says security is important to her while Chow worries about the country’s external debt.

Kedah is under the rule of PAS-led Pakatan Rakyat.

And Chow does feel the controls and restrictions on nightlife here. He has even had to show his identity card once or twice during checks. He doesn’t like it but doesn’t really mind.

“There are no such restrictions in Penang (also a Pakatan-run state but led by DAP). Penang is so near, I can always hop across for the nightlife there, so it’s not a problem,” Chow says.

Sungai Petani (and Kulim, too) is unique. Although it’s part of Kedah, its people seem to identify more with Penang and even drive cars with Penang number plates.

“Cars with Penang plates fetch a better price. The JPJ (Road Transport Department) in Seberang Perai (on Penang mainland) is only 20 minutes away from Sungai Petani compared with Alor Setar 45 minutes away.

“For shopping, we always go to Penang. Out of 10 people, nine will go to Penang and only one to Alor Setar. Some of us have never even been to Alor Setar.

“Even factories and shops here (and Kulim) follow the Penang (and Federal) weekend with Saturdays and Sundays off instead of Kedah’s Friday and Saturday weekends,” says 52-year-old Henry Lim, while sipping on tea with his friends at one of the old traditional Chinese coffeeshops.

Henry and friends have strong views on politics in the country.

They think the country is in a muddle and put the blame for all the problems – such as civil servants’ “government mentality”, race relations, crime and the mat rempit menace, among others, on the Barisan Nasional government.

Henry’s friend, whose surname is also Lim, says that during Barisan’s rule, owners of coffeeshops like his had to pay summonses all the time when they placed food display stands on their shop’s walkway.

That is now a thing of the past, he says.

“Our bank deposits have gone up because we don’t need to pay these ‘nonsense’ compounds anymore, so who says PAS is no good?” he cheekily adds.

Benny Yong, 65, worries about the increasing crime rate in their area and thinks the policemen are not doing their job.

Yong remembers how safe it was in the 1960s and 1970s when they could walk or cycle home after a midnight show without any trouble. But “nowadays if you are out late, you must look at the rearview mirror of your car to see if anyone is following you.”

A number of the men in the group have had their homes broken into or know of friends who have.

One, who declined to be named, was stabbed in the abdomen with a blunt object by a robber who broke into his home in broad daylight.

When he went to the police station to make a report, he says, the officer-in-charge was not around so he was made to wait for hours. He adds that he was only attended to close to midnight and only when he threatened to call up Bukit Aman to complain.

They hardly see policemen patrolling the area and wonder why the mat rempit, who are a nuisance and dangerous to other road users, are allowed to roam free.

Yong and Henry are also concerned about the relationship among races of their children’s generation. They say the children don’t mix around anymore and that this was never the case in the 70s and 80s.

“We blame the politicians. They cultivate differences among the races so they can rule more easily,” opines Yong.

Henry is bothered by what he sees as different rules of law for different people.

“Why is it that people like (Pasir Mas MP and Perkasa chief) Ibrahim Ali can say whatever he wants and the police don’t take action, but when it comes to a student stomping on a picture of the PM, the police are very quick to act.

“If it was a picture of (Bersih co-chairperson) (Datuk) Ambiga they had stomped on, the police would have done nothing,” he wonders.

He finds it incredulous that when something major happens in the country, no minister would step forward to accept responsibility and resign – unlike other countries where “there are standards”.

In other parts of Kedah, like Baling which is still poor and undeveloped or Pokok Sena which is changing and developing or Jitra which is impressive and flourishing, people have a different set of concerns.

Rosli, 50, from Baling, has watched how the constituency has changed hands back and forth between PAS and Barisan over the past few general elections. But when it comes to development, nothing has changed.

Baling remains a town with just a few rows of shops, two banks, some food stalls and a KFC outlet.

Rosli says there is no factory in Baling.

“There was a place set aside for ‘industrial development’ which was basically for a bread factory and a tissue factory – a little something that Baling people could be proud of.

“But that didn’t work out and the space is now used by a mamak for catering and by a foreigner to make picture frames and rugs. The rest of the area is a ‘dwelling place’ for cows and sheep!

“So, to me, the politicians are here for their own interest. Umno or PAS, it’s the same. We are lagging behind.”

He is hoping for less cakap gah indah (big talk) and more action.

He says folk here can also see that Umno in Baling is split into three camps led by three personalities, two of whom are national figures.

“They don’t get along. They don’t appear at functions together. So how are they to propel us, the people, forward if even at their level they can’t even get along?”

Further up north in Pokok Sena, Yaakob Baharom and “Abang Jie Pak Long” say what had been jungles were now shops, new buildings and roads.

The two, however, have differing opinions. Yaakob is thrilled, Abang Jie isn’t.

Yaakob, 58, has been tapping rubber since he was 22 years old.

“We are from the kampung, so we are healthy. We eat a lot of pucuk paku, jering and petai (kampung vegetables) which are good for health,” he says.

He works from 7.30am till 11am every day and splits the latex income 50-50 with the owner of the rubber plantation.

If it doesn’t rain, he is able to make RM1,200 a month and gets another RM200 to RM300 doing odd jobs.

One of his children is working and gives RM400 to his wife; money, he says, he doesn’t touch. “We are kampung people and live a moderate life so what we get is enough.”

Yaakob, an ardent Barisan supporter and defender, says he will vote in a Barisan government because it gave out the RM500 BR1M (aid to households earning below RM3,000).

“No, that is not a bribe. It is a bribe only if one or two people benefit but BR1M benefits so many, so how can that be a bribe?

“Competition has become tough with Pakatan in the picture, so the Barisan (Federal) Government has to think of what to do to win voters.

“Barisan was asleep before. It has woken up, washed its face and brushed its teeth so now it can do something,” he says.

“But if it was really asleep, how can Malaysia develop this much?” he adds.

“We have all these new highways now. Sure, there are tolls to be paid but once the companies have recovered their cost and made their profit, the roads will be toll-free.”

However, Abang Jie, 55, who is struggling to make ends meet on his RM1,200 pay, is clearly unhappy.

Three of his six children are still in school and his wife needs at least RM30 a day for food and other household expenses, and pocket money for the school-going kids.

Ikan kembong, he says, used to cost RM2.20 to RM3.50 a kilo but now it has shot up to RM8 to RM10.

“Kampung folk here are sighing every day because we have to pay more for marketing,” says Abang Jie, who adds that for the past 30 years, he has been helping political parties.

“But I am truly disappointed because I didn’t get money, not even a hamper, from either Barisan or PAS.”

He’s now fed up and is sitting on the fence.

“If PAS wins, its leaders’ cronies will have it easy. And if Barisan wins, its cronies benefit. We don’t get anything!

“We climb trees to put up party flags and all we get is a packet drink. When they win, we don’t see their faces around at all until it’s time for the next election,” he says.

In Jitra, which has developed by leaps and bounds, Abdul Rahim Hussain, 38, feels that when Barisan was the government in Kedah, there was too much cronyism.

“I think they (Barisan leaders) have come to their senses now. If they do it again, we’ll vote them out again,” he says.

He says he wants Barisan to win at Federal government level but wants Pakatan to hold on to a few states “for balance”.

“When Barisan made a clean sweep and won two-thirds, we got nothing,” he says.

“But now that Pakatan is fighting, the Barisan (Federal) Government is fighting back by giving the rakyat all sorts of goodies like the BR1M as well as money for schoolchildren and smartphones.

“The benefits are finally trickling down to the people. We feel it now. And we have to thank both Barisan and Pakatan for this.”

• AirAsia X offers free tickets to any destination for initial public offering to retail investors
• Cyclone takes the heat for hot weather
• If you want to go far work early and hard on personal branding
• Doc held for posing as cop to extort businessman
• Allianz aims for RM150mil in new premiums
• Couple upset over baby’s death
• Malaysia's I-Bhd and Thailand's CPN in mall joint venture with GDV of RM580mil
• From tomorrow, city cabbies can pick up passengers from KLIA
• Najib wants Chinese in Cabinet
• Todd was under treatment for depression, public inquiry told