After eight straight days of an all out campaign for the control of Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat the official results shows that BN candidate P. Kamalanathan upstage PKR's Zaid Ibrahim with a 1,725 majority to be elected the new MP for the large constituency.
Even though the by-election was a direct contest between the two candidates, there are many other victors and losers as well.
The Bosses
As expected the voters of Hulu Selangor were showered with goodies in the form of cash, development projects, land titles and PROMISES. For sure these are on top of the usual 10 KG pack of rice, Milo, cooking oil, drinking water, cheap T-shirts and caps and whatever that will make the day of the makciks and pakciks and the innocent kids.
The Towkays
From the popular kaya puff shop owner to the makcik who manned the roadside stall selling air sirap, these group will be hoping that by-elections will happen more often. Of course they are not cursing the newly elected MP to drop dead any soon but they can't be blamed if that aspiration is hiding behind their smiling face thinking of the flowing ringgits for the last two weeks.
The Candidates
P. Kamalanathan might have won the seat and will be greeted as YB but in the eyes of many including the community that he claims to represent he has lost his dignity and pride when he stoop so low to appease his political masters.
Zaid Ibrahim lost in this full fledge battle and having his personal matter stripped bare for the public view but his personal conviction for the interest of the people was given a strong endorsement. The people of HS will not be seeing the last of him yet.
The Commanders
Those in HS and outsiders who visited the place during the by-election has been wondering who is really the BN candidate? People noticed the large quantity of posters, billboards and banners of his face in town might assumed Najib Razak is the candidate.
Najib Razak is actually the real winner here. He can now claim that the BN victory is an endorsement of his leadership and policies that he rolled out since appointed as Prime Minister a year ago. But then he need to reflect deeply on the 80% of Chinese votes that went to PKR, when translated meaning the Chinese actually still has doubts over his sincerity and policies.
Anwar Ibrahim has been in the forefront campaigning for his comrade since day one. Basing on the result, his popularity and support within the Malay community is not stable and if left unchecked it will be his Archilles heel in the next general election. On the other hand he now knows he can count on the votes from the Chinese community and the support of DAP in mobilising election machinery within the community.
Muhyiddin Yassin is one big loser in this by-election. The usual Umno practice is for the party deputy president to lead the campaign in any by-election. Initially Muhyiddin was in charge but when the tide was favoring PR, his boss Najib decided to fly straight from Japan to HS to lead the campaign. This gives the impression that Najib has no confidence on Muhyiddin leadership and a slap on the face of his deputy.
Khalid Ibrahim as the Selangor Menteri Besar learn the trade to pull all the plugs as the state government to utilised all state facilities support this by-election from his predecessors but too bad that Felda is not under the control of the state government. Maybe he should be more a shrewd politician rather than a businessman when handling people from Umno.
Tok Guru Nik Aziz influence and endearment amongst the Chinese community is now gone beyond Kelantan. If he is still able to keep his momentum by the next election and campaign in BN stronghold like Johore, the Chinese voters there might shake some of the seats occupied by MCA/BN.
Lim Kit Siang is already a household name amongst the HS electorates, Malays included. Thanks to Utusan Malaysia for giving him the "coverage" from time to time. As for the Chinese voters, his presence in every political stops wstill accords him a star speaker status. With an increased of support from the Chinese, efforts need to be taken for him to penetrate the Malay electorates for the next election.
Chua Soi Lek the recently elected MCA president was not around in HS most of the time as he was said to be overseas visiting his daughter. He was only seen when Najib is in HS. His presence was nothing more than an extra in a show with Najib in the leading role. He must now dig out whatever reasons he can to explain to Najib the Chinese rejection of MCA, or is it more on Umno or he himself personally?
The Political Parties
MIC is the party of P.Kamalanathan but the party that really campaigned with whatever tricks of the trade is Umno. From the onset of this by-election it can be noticed and proven that it is Umno that called all the shots and decision making process, from the selection of candidates to whether MIC president Samy Vellu should show his face in HS. People are reminded that MIC is now Muhyiddin-In-Charge.
UMNO can now claim that the Malays are truly backing them and they have contained PKR and PAS especially PR supremo Anwar Ibrahim. But they will be barking at Chua Soi Lek asking for explanation why MCA failed to secure the Chinese votes. With millions of taxpayers money pumped into the pockets of the voters, the platform is now set for the mother of all battles - the 13th general election.
PKR losing another parliamentary seat is a big blow not just to the party but also the Pakatan Rakyat as this has increased the BN potential to reclaim 2/3 majority in Parliament. The result also shows that PKR is losing grip on whatever balance of support they have since March 2008. This party really need to revamp their election machinery if they are serious of winning seats and capturing Putrajaya.
DAP rocketing growth in terms of membership and branches since March 2008 has been a boost to the PR by-election machinery. Even though PKR lost the seat but support for the DAP is on the rise. This can be observed from the numbers of self paying volunteers from all over the country helping out in the campaign and also the huge attendance in DAP organised events during the by-election.
MCA provided token support to the BN election machinery. This is not surprising since they just went through more than one year of internal strife. Their machinery are moving half heartedly and other than some cameo appearances by some of their ministers and deputy ministers, their presence are hardly noticeable. From the result, it is not surprising if many of the 8,000 MCA members in HS voted for Zaid Ibrahim.
PAS was initially slow in mobilising their party machinery in doing real campaign work to solicite for votes even though their presence during nomination day was huge. After few days of snail paced movement which cause the Malay heartland in Felda further entrenched with Umno, PAS began to push into the Felda areas. The arrival of Tok Guru Nik Aziz provided the confidence booster but just not enough to draw out the votes.
GERAKAN which once upon time a party to be reckoned with do not even make its' presence felt in HS. Maybe only during nomination when its' president Koh Tsu Koon was a given a cameo appearance.
IPF, campaign even in death?
PPP, who is the president?
The power-play and battle of wits in HS is now over. It is time for the locals to re-claim their life in this outback district. But life would not be the same anymore. The people there now must look through their checklist on all the promises and commitments by both side of the political divide.
First thing in the morning, the people of Rasa will be waiting in front of Najib's PM office door for their RM3 million as promised. A promise is a promise even if the people of Rasa did not vote for BN. But wonders if MACC will be there too? - Loka
No comments:
Post a Comment