Kuala Lampur, July 6 -- Electoral politics in Johor cannot be understood solely through campaign speeches, party manifestos or the arithmetic of constituencies. There is another arithmetic at work in Johor, one that rarely appears in official statistics but influences political sentiments in profound ways.

It is the ratio of one to five.

For every one Malaysian Chinese working in Singapore, there can be as many as five adults in a household in Johor who depend, directly or indirectly, on that income stream. Parents, grandparents, younger siblings, unemployed relatives, and family members with irregular earnings often rely on remittances or financial assistance sent back from across the Causeway.

This reality is neither glamorous nor ea...