By Syed Jaymal Zahiid | The Malaysian Insider
KUALA KUBU BARU, April 23 — Lim Kit Siang urged his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition today to fight for every single vote in the final stretch of the Hulu Selangor by-election campaign, pointing out that Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is now the underdog against Barisan Nasional’s (BN) P. Kamalanathan.
“The red light is on,” Lim told a press conference here this morning, in a tacit admission that PR was now trailing behind BN in the race for votes this Sunday.
Lim (picture) said the campaigning effort in the Malay and Indian majority areas by BN is not to be underestimated.
“According to them, they are in the lead and have more chances to win. This is a critical development.
“I want to set the alarm and urge all leaders to go all out to secure every single vote,” said the Ipoh Timur MP.
In recent days, Umno and BN have stepped up their campaign with even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak hitting the husting.
On the stump, the prime minister and Umno president has made uncharacteristically aggressive attacks against PR, by calling Zaid a Cabinet reject and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim a two-faced politician.
Umno’s aggressive attacks on Zaid’s character by dredging up his past drinking habit and ownership of race horses have also caused PR to go on the defensive.
In a last-ditch effort to save Zaid’s campaign, Kelantan Mentri Besar and PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat will go on the stump for PR tonight and tomorrow to revive the candidate’s standing among conservative Muslims.
Lim said today that it was now obvious that PR is the underdog in the race to win the parliamentary seat and that its BN rivals have shown great will to snatch the constituency away from the opposition.
He also said that almost all the Cabinet ministers have been making round-the-clock tours in the constituency in what he described as a show of earnestness by PR’s rivals to win this by-election.
Asked if this meant he was pessimistic about PR’s chances of retaining Hulu Selangor, Lim replied:
“No, I am confident we can still win but we must step up in the last leg of the campaign.”
The alarm must also be rung for the voters who are seeking to implement change, and duty calls for them to play a “citizen’s role” to lay the path for a corrupt-free future by rejecting the BN candidate, said the veteran DAP politician.
MCA supporters, which are reported to be 8,000-strong, Lim said, should also reject BN to protest against what he described as the Chinese party’s failure to protect them and being subservient to Umno’s expanding “hegemony”.
Giving examples, Lim said the silence of the MCA amid Umno’s rampant racist practices like Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s “I’m Malay first and Malaysian second” should suffice to prove the BN Chinese component party’s inability to stand up against Umno’s dominance.
“They must in the interest of the people reject the MCA which have completely lost touch with the ground by rejecting BN’s candidate Kamalananthan.”
Which is the least tainted politician?
Zaid– drinking problem
CSL– adultery problem
Bung– polygamy problem
Jib— integrity problem
Moo— 1malaysia problem
Dr Chua already successful getting the chinese voters for BN
Malays already fed up with Nik Ajis fatwa even his son in law he cannot discipline
Zahid is damage frog
I guess it is a reverse-psychology to enhance the fighting-spirit and to create an even stronger determination to bury BN/UMNO alive.
I bet Kam Lan will lose his deposit … 1 pay 100
Zaid already won hands down, but a bigger majority will enhance the chance for PR to rule perpetually for the next 500 years.
Let us bury BN/UMNO for good.
What’s this big deal of by-election? The more important thing is to wipe out BN in the 13th GE!
Zaid is now a great man irrespective of his past.
That half dead, foul mouth mamak kutty, MELAYU1 mooooyidin, Mr. C4, old porn star, semi value and all their cronies have much much worst past than him. So what big deal la?
Zaid is repentant while those bums have not even display an inkling of guilt on their dirty past deeds.
Vote PKR !!!!!!!!
Make no mistake – Zaid losing is a disaster for the country. Saying that Zaid can win in another district is NO consolation because its going beyond him. This by-election is a representation of what is possible in the forseeable future. Failing of which, hundreds of thousands of Malaysian will vote with their feet long before GE 13 comes around. Its equivalent of turning us to exporter of highly-qualified Oversea Foreign Worker – a higher end version of the Philippine.
It will be a disaster.
Not many people know who is Kam Lan, but the whole world knows that Zaid is a successful lawyer, and a good man.
Kam Lan is an unknown, and has no personality. MIC not happy, UMNO not happy, MCA = quiet dog bites hard.
Protest votes will cause Kam Lan to lose his deposit.
May be he’s giving away silvery discs which documents his hotel room exploits in digitised moving pictures…
Does that mean that Umno-BN is better at disciplining the likes of Ahmad Ismail & Nasir Safar?
At least Zaid switch sides by leaving Umno-BN and joining PKR-Pakatan Rakyat instead of proclaiming himself a ‘Pakatan Rakyat friendly independent’. Turncoats who had left Pakatan Rakyat, like YF Hee, Zahrain & Zul, only can be ‘Umno-BN friendly independents’. Is it because their reputations as frogs in the eyes of their constituents are already too damaging to contain, even by Umno-BN?
Judging from the TV publicity point of view, it is quite scary and causing viewers a negative perception towards PR. TV coverage last night especially during the prime time on most channel connives with BN ambush PR with wild accusations. Hopefully HS voters never fall into BN-Umno tricks espeacilly indian and malay votes.
“…..But there is catch – Najib said that the additional money will only come provided that Selangor falls back into BN’s hands in the next general election. “We have agreed to pay RM160,000 an acre. The payment will be taken care of when the land is developed… (but) that is in your hands. Make sure that in the upcoming general election, Selangor returns to BN’s control,” said Najib.
S Pathmawathy, Malaysiakini ……..”
A typical dirty tactic used by Barisan Nasional to induce people to vote for them during election…
The Malaysian Election Act should be amended to prohibit the “instant noodle project”, cash payment as inducement for vote as done by Najib in Sungai Buaya, where he gave out” long overdue” cash payment of RM50,000 each to 100 of the 363 Felda settlers………
This kind of vote-inducement incentive is actually a form of bribery and should be banned…
The question is-why out of all the time the Barisan Nasional have, they only choose this “auspicious time” to help the people when they are always in the position to do so as the Federal Government of the Day?
The election act should include prohibition of ‘instant noodle project’ or any form of “cash handouts” from the election candidate nomination date until the election date” as to stop this kind of political bribery practice to continue…
there should not be any form of bribery or actions that have ‘the element of bribery’ in election for DUN and Parliament if we are to practice the real democracy.
In any elections, especially the rural areas both ‘cash inducement’ and political harrassment being used by the Barisan Nasional to secure votes.. The postal votes too are subject to political harassment….In the rural areas such as in Sarawak & Sabah, the voters are indirectly coerced into voting for the Barisan Nasional candidates with the threat of “no development grants/projects/subsidy” if they votes for opposition candidates…
when a candidate wins in this way, he actually do not have the real mandate of the people… as what the true democracy is all about…
What can we expect from a government formed through corrupt practices?
Corruptions breeds corruptions…!
I recall that prior to the 12th GE, Umno-BN controlled government TV stations & Umno-BN linked private TV stations projected the image of the opposition parties as some sort of an ‘axis of evil’. Judging from the outcome of that GE, we know that the Malaysian public are smarter than to simply believe every dirt Umno-BN dishes out on Pakatan Rakyat, hook, line and sinker.
Such campaign practices by Umno-BN only serve to reinforce the belief that Umno-BN regards elections as a ‘mere formality’ to legitimize its rule in Malaysia.
What more when we see Umno-BN using federal government resources to ‘sweeten’ its campaign promises.
DCLXVI,
Never under estimate this bunch of evil, this time they throw monies make promises like no tomorrow lah, therefore, my feeling is not good. Monies is the strongest evil temptation that human cannot resist. Let’s PRAY….