BATU SAPI, Nov 3 — For decades, villagers of Kampung Gas in Batu Sapi only knew the emblem of one political entity — Barisan Nasional.

After Ansari Abdullah suffered a nasty tumble in their village last week, however, they now know PKR’s signature twin crescents well and are even able to name a significant number of its leaders.

The 56-year-old lawyer has since been called “cursed” by Batu Sapi folk, but on the contrary, a visit to the village here showed that his fall had instead brought him good fortune in the form of support from voters.

Already, talk is that support in the village for the contesting parties has now been split three ways among BN, PKR and Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).

The local folk here, numbering over 1,000 voters, are now more cautious when asked about which party they supported.

Unlike the typical die-hard BN fans in other villages who shout “BN” without hesitation, Kampung Gas folk now pause before answering and with a knowing smile, they are heard repeating lines that were obviously taught to them by PKR.

“Undi di tangan kita, kan? (Our vote lies in our hands, right?)” many told The Malaysian Insider, when approached recently.

While their responses may not necessarily mean votes for PKR, it is a clear indication that they are now more politically aware than they were in the past decade.

In Election 2008, 80 per cent of votes had gone to BN, but today, observers believe that the opposition parties of PKR and SAPP, if their votes were combined, would topple BN in Kampung Gas.

In some of the wooden homes standing on stilts, the flags of all three parties are hung as a symbol of their undecided support for BN, PKR and SAPP.

Local children are seen running about wearing PKR stickers on their faces, shouting out the party’s boisterous song.

Youths are seen scaling the pillars of their homes, humming good-naturedly as they stapled the flags of all three parties all over their walls.

When approached by The Malaysian Insider, many voters said they were still waiting to make their decision and that the last few hours of the by-election campaign would play a crucial role in their decision-making process.

One certainty, however, is that all the villagers remember Ansari’s fall and sympathised with the politician for his bad luck.

Siti Raddah Mohd Sah, 50, said that she had been nearby when the incident occurred last Friday and her heart went out to the white-haired Ansari, who now suffers from two fractured ribs and severe chest pains.

“Poor man... He took a nasty tumble. It was quite a long fall,” she recalled.

The housewife explained that Ansari’s incident had opened the eyes of the ruling government and finally brought some attention to her dilapidated village.

“The walkway here has always been in a bad condition. And who do you think repairs it? The villagers. We cannot wait for the government to do it because it would take too long,” she said.

She added that whenever a piece of wooden plank cracked or an entire walkway gave way, the villagers would pool their funds together and buy some wood to patch up the holes.

“We will get our young boys to fix it. We do it ourselves. Sure, the entire walkway itself was built by government allocation but who repairs it and keeps it in good order? We do,” she said.

Fatimah Said, 49, said the villagers of Kampung Gas had always been hardcore BN supporters but Ansari’s little accident had made significant changes in the village.

“Before this, we did not know before who this Khalid Ibrahim was. But on the day of the incident, he was there, too. Nice man,” she said, referring to Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

She said “thank God” when it was pointed out that Khalid himself had a close shave in the incident.

Khalid had just stepped onto the steps of a villager’s home when the pathway behind him collapsed, buckling under Ansari and four other campaign assistants.

PKR has since rebuilt the walkway and compensated the homeowners, spending about RM2,000 for the works.

Fatimah’s daughter, Anggriet Ganggai, 32, said that Kampung Gas villagers were now more critical of their living conditions after it was highlighted by Ansari’s fall.

“We are the younger ones here and our minds are open. I am not saying that BN is bad but what I am saying is that it is not a sin to vote for the opposition.

“We have given BN many years to help us, to do the best for us, but our village remains decrepit and our people are poor and living in poverty,” she said.

Anggriet, who works as a hotel cashier, noted that all her life, she had lived in the village but had never once seen Batu Sapi’s late MP, Datuk Edmund Chong Ket Wah.

Chong, of BN’s Parti Bersatu Sabah, had passed away on October 9, paving the way for the by-election.

His widow, Datin Linda Tsen Thau Lin, is now vying to take her husband’s place as MP. She is facing PKR’s Ansari and SAPP’s Datuk Yong Teck Lee, the party’s president and former Sabah chief minister.

At the mention of Tsen’s name, several villagers recoiled in apparent disapproval.

“She never came here... and we hear that she does not know how to speak proper Bahasa Malaysia, too. How can she understand us, then? How can she speak to us and know our problems? At least leaders like Yong Teck Lee and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim are better,” said Fatimah.

“I know many of our local elders are staunch BN supporters but only because they have known no other before this and they almost fear voting for something else that they are unsure of,” said Anggriet.

She added, however, that the influence of the younger voters would make a fair difference in the constituency.

Many villagers here also agree that BN’s sudden attention to their livelihood was only temporary and was aimed at winning their votes.

Youths Kamaruddin Idris, 21, and Maimunah Norin, 22, agree that BN had been given ample opportunity to improve the conditions of Batu Sapi.

They believed that with the emergence of opposition parties like SAPP and PKR, the local folk now had an alternative and a choice either to maintain status quo or try something new.

However, they claimed that PKR still lagged behind in terms of support.

“BN is still ahead because it is out of habit for the locals to vote for the ‘dacing’ (scales) symbol. SAPP is close behind... people here like Yong Teck Lee... he is local, he speaks our lingo and they believe in his ‘Sabah for Sabahans’ concept,” said Kamaruddin.

Maimunah agreed, explaining that the people’s difficult lives could have been changed by the BN government but nothing had been done in the past few years.

“We are poor... did you know that a 12-hour shift here in a factory earns us just RM9 a day? And yet, we have to take the minibus to and from our workstations and the fare costs RM4 for a two-way trip?” she said.

She added that most of the adults from Kampung Gas earned meagre take-home salaries of just RM400 to RM500 monthly.

“How can we continue to live like this? If it is true that our leaders are leading grand lives, then why can’t we be given better lives, too?

“Our older generation of people have been quiet for years because we seem to be happy, living in racial harmony. But I think now, people are more aware. Many will not vote as blindly as before,” she said.

The one thing clear in Kampung Gas, like in most of Batu Sapi, is that the villagers here live in total racial harmony, a true manifestation of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1 Malaysia concept.

“Here in Kampung Gas, we have all races... we have the Chinese, the Bajaus, the orang Sungai, Bugis, Kadazan, the Iban... we all live together happily.

“Racial problems have never been a problem here so we will not look at race on polling day,” said Anggriet.

She laughed when told that the only “race” issue at hand in Batu Sapi, was the race between Ansari, Tsen and Yong come polling day this November 4.

“We will see what happens. We will wait and see who can best convince us... after all, the vote is in our hands, no one else’s, right?” she said.