LABIS: The by-election din is waking up not only the people in Tenang but also some angry “toyol” or “spirits” who have come out to wreak havoc on a rubber estate near here. Or so it seems.
For the past 10 days, the workers in Bukit Dato Tenang rubber estate have been spending sleepless nights because mysterious “falling rocks” have been hitting their quarters regularly.
No one knows who is pelting them – not the management, or the police, or the workers. They have all tried to catch the culprit but in vain.
Strangely, the hail stones have been raining down on one particular row of the 20 quarters.
Now the estate management has given the workers a week to find an alternative place to stay after it failed to locate the source of the “attack”.
According to 45-year-old S Maniam, a local familiar with the incident, the estate residents had reported the matter to the police.
“But so far even the police don’t know who is throwing rocks at us,” he said.
“This incident is very disturbing. We have not been able to sleep or work worrying about it… we don’t know who is doing this,” he added.
Since the bizarre “show” began, the estate youths have banded together to keep watch.
“We haven’t been able to find anything. Many now believe that it could be the work of an angry ‘jin’ or ‘toyol’,” Maniam said.
He said that a similar incident had occurred 15 years ago. At that time, the residents and management were also not able to identify who were throwing the stones.
“But after a week the whole incident stopped by itself,” said Maniam.
Meanwhile, locals in the area have sought the help of shamans and bomohs to “engage” the mysterious “spirit” and find out what it wants.
Yesterday, a bomoh managed to lure the mysterious spirit who told him that the local residents had “disturbed its place”.
After much cajoling, the spirit agreed to leave.
Sleepy hollow
Meanwhile, rumours abound that the appearance of the mysterious spirit has something to do with the upcoming Tenang by-election.
The once quiet sleepy hollow has seen much activity in recent days. Speculations are that the place will see more frequent “visits” by the “unknown”.
Bukit Datuk Estate is one of the 12 rubber estates located in the Tenang constituency.
The Tenang seat, which is part of the Labis parliamentary constituency in Johor, fell vacant on Dec 17 following the death of two-term Barisan Nasional assemblyman Sulaiman Taha.
In the 2008 general election, Sulaimn won the seat with a 2,492-vote majority against PAS’ Md Saim Siran.
Word is that both BN and PAS will, this time round, field female candidates.
Indications are that PAS may field its Labis Muslimah chief, Normala Sudirman, while BN may go for Labis Wanita chief Haslinda Salleh.
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