by Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
November 07, 2010
We need to distinguish between a crass propagandist and a sober politician. Ahmad Maslan fits into the former category it seems.
Ahmad Maslan, the Umno information chief cited 4 reasons for the victory in Galas. The acceptance by the people, of the national leadership of Najib and Muhyidin. The influence of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Mustapha Mohamad, the acceptance of the people of the various initiatives thought of by our great leader which will be implemented by the ruling government and so on. He was referring to such initiatives like 1 Malaysia, ETP and so forth. Finally, and here is the earth shattering observation- people are fed up of the politics of the opposition to the ruling BN. It’s a triumph of moderation over extremism. One writer puts as the alarm bell for the 13th GE.
For whom does the bells toll?
People in Gua Musang and Galas in particular must be the most intelligent people in Malaysia. There must be something in the pristine air and the physical terrain of the area. Or maybe something in the diet of Gua Musangians. The nasi kerabu and berlauk at Restoren Kak Zah or the stalls near Fully Inn?
They understood the concept of 1 Malaysia when the same concept baffled Tun Mahathir and misunderstood by other Malaysians. The people eating at Restoren Kak Zah in Bandar Lama Gua Musang talking politics and cock understand and embrace the various initiatives by the national government. The people in Sungai Terah and Batu Papan are waiting for their ETP, GTP and whatever P’s we can think of.
Gua Musang should be made the administrative capital of Kelantan then or perhaps be made a federal territory and developed into the east coast Putrajaya. There is so much good talent here.
In Galas, the people are roughly divided between Pas and Umno. The Umno candidate secured some 54 per cent of the vote while Pas commanded the balance. I can’t read this as a monumental shift in preference. Pas lost 265 votes from what they got through the late Che Hashim. Umno gained 1571. Umno was able to capitalise on the larger turnout of voters.
In order to wipe out the 646 vote deficit, Umno had to effectively secure 1800 votes. I had predicted Umno to win by around 2300 to 2500 votes. My detractors were jubilant I was wrong here but curiously silent on my prediction that Umno will win. The effective 1800 vote is close enough to 2300. Indeed Umno could have garnered more than that, had the meddling by outsiders and internal sabotaging were minimised.
So to come back to what Ahmad Maslan said. I see no evidence of the validity in these assertions. What was at work in Galas last week was pure retail politics not wholesale politics. When Muhyidin came the first time around, he was astonished at the muted and subdued air about the election.
Retail politics involve the articulation and championing of purely local issues. This is opposite to wholesale politics where, national issues not directly related to local situations are aired. Perhaps Ahmad Maslan should direct his mind to these concepts.
The Chinese in Desa Pulai were not more motivated by people distributing leaflets on the circumstances leading to the death of Teoh Beng Hock. I suspect they were remotely interested in the issue surrounding the shooting of the late Amirul in Shah Alam. Of course, these are indeed important issues to those immediately concerned but hardly in resonance with people in Galas. The loss of loved ones is not light matter.
Chinese in Desa Pulai were more interested in the security of their land tenure. They were more concerned about the affairs and future of their Chinese school. The Chinese and homeless people in Gua Musang are more interested in getting housing faculties. The fence sitters in Gua Musang are more interested in seeing Kesedar managed more efficiently and corruption weeded out.
If PAS and the other opposition parties to Umno rule had been more vigilant and had paid keener attention to local issues, they could have made a big impact. Like raising the issues on the management and abuses of Kesedar. But they didn’t. Gua Musangians are interested in this issue.
People in Gua Musang were more amused and probably entertained by the sight of Theresa Kok and her coworkers carrying DAP flags and banners around Bandar Lama Gua Musang.
My point is this. If we can and are eager to dismiss these attempts to foist national issues into ones of concern to local voters as useless irrelevance, the same ruling should be applied to the big idea, that this win in Galas is an endorsement of national leadership. No such thing.
This Galas by election is won on the influence of Tengku Razaleigh simpliciter and we are thankful he is an Umno man. The majority of Umno members in Gua Musang understood this and gave their all out.
The people in Gua Musang in general understood the strategic advantage of giving a win to Umno this time. Gua Musang is the only election area in Kelantan to have 100 per cent Umno/BN representation. PAS may grumble for a few days, but in the end sobriety will take over. Only permanent interests matter. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com
* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd.Ariff Sabri Hj. Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).
What momentum?
You expect Illegal immigrants, bribes, government machinery, the rural poor, the illiterates and ‘blind voters’ to start the momentum?
Then this country is doomed.
Not an iota has changed – the judiciary, the macc, the police, the BTN racism, demand for non-existent rights – have not changed.
Corruption is still a thriving national sports.
So what ignited the momentum?
Rarely you can find LKS use the word “cock”…unless very angry and rightfully so ..as those UMNO B idiots are putting out nonsensical reasons and half truths..why they win at Galas.
However..PR is to be blamed for their failures.They are fighting for freedom and succeeding so well.
Why so many suddenly change of hearts?
LKS seems to know it….but PAS and keDAILan think otherwise?
All are united to combat crooks double standards and corruptions..the three most powerful truth exposed that got PR more and more Malaysians supporting them.
Are they now saying…they lost to the devils because the devils are more powerful and ..buying up souls…and later the whole country by the devils will win in Malaysia again?
Yes…Anwar made too many promises he cannot keep and seems to care for his personal sodomy case more than anything else.
I think…had Anwar lost the case and go to jail…PR will be much more powerful.
As much as I sincerely sympathize with Anwar for suffering so much …out of nothing…he should know that Malaysians want him to sacrifice ..not fight for his life..which is a life destined to be PM…dead or alive.
Look at the Aquino family of Philippines and be inspired. Aquino was prepared to be killed…and so he was…and what was he reactions after that?
The fact is…is Anwar a trully Freedom Fighter or a selfish opportunist?
This is what many Malaysians are confused about.
///momentum yes, monumental shift not yet???///
A couple and aggregation of momentums may result in monumental shift if PR – Anwar & PKR – in particular do not learn the lessons.
Sakmongkol AK47 picks on Galas to refute Ahmad Maslan. OK the writer is correct that Galas was local, Kelantanese being quite parochial look favourably at their son Ku Li for fighting for Kelantan’s royalty. Even PAS treated him with kid’s glove.
But what about the other two “momentums” – Hulu Selangor and the recent Batu Sapi?
In the first case, PR/PKR’s candidate Zaid must indeed be confused whether he was getting full campaign support from supporters of rival Azmin Ali.
In Batu Sapi, YB Kit Siang already marked it as important for national change beginning from Fixed Deposit states.
And yet Anwar, in spite of saying that he would give a free hand to local Sabah PKR, sidelined Jeffrey Kitingan’s preference for Christina Liew; and in spite of saying if Sibu could be won (by DAP) and hence could not lose in Batu Sapi, sidelined also DAP, ignored that local conditions there favoured a Chinese candidate, and placed his and Azmin’s preference (Ansari) in three cornered fight against SAPP’s Taiko (who didn’t jump from BN’s into PR’s platform over his empty boast of over 30 BN backbenchers crossovers in Sept 16th 2008!
Even today when Zaid is (at least in my opinion) a better candidate of stature to helm PKR as a glue for DAP & PAS, he is perceived tacitly supporting ambitions of Azmin to lead as alternative in event of his failure to do so by reason of Sodomy II. What’s the reason for this?
What kind of glue is this when PKR’s ongoing party elections are beset either by low voter turnout or allegations by Haris and denial by Saifuddin Nasution Ismail of 1000 unmarked ballot papers being sold to ensure some leaders get elected, there being no smoke without fire especially when there is no reason to think Haris wishes ill of the Opposition parties and makes spurious allegations???
A swinging pendulum. Sleepy head’s first GE was extremely good because of renewed hopes people had in the new PM (not in umno). Soon it became clear that sleepy head was flip flopping all over the place. And even if he was really determined to change, umno was not. The pendulum swung back and umno lost badly in GE12.
Clearly jib is now attempting to create a swing in umno’s favour again. Just like badawi’s first swing. And obviously jib dipped his head into dr mamak’s old toolbox and he found some tricks which he thought could be recycled. That was a bad idea. I dont think the two by-election results are any endorsement by the people of that jibby-tower. Neither were they an endorsement of his one whatever thingy. If jib believes he is on target, he is in for a shocker.
The results are in face a testimony of two issues. First, there are still a lot of stupid voters out there. Fools who insist on supporting those who clearly said that their support are not wanted or needed. Fools who are actually happy when umno raped and robbed them blind. Secondly, keadilan’s recent development is definately confusing and worrying a lot of supporters.
There is still time to put things right before GE13. But do it right away. Umno is still the same old greedy, arrogant, abusive, oppressive, wasteful, incompetent and corrupt party. The spots are all still there right where they were for the last 50yrs – and they are not about to go away.
So stay on course. We shall plough on nevertheless. We do need some new tools and we must discard some useless ones.
You are right – LKS rarely or never use the word “cock”. It is AK47 who used the word.
Monsterball:
This article was written by Sakmongkol AK47, not by Kit.
In all seriousness, we have to wait for more scandals to surface in the coming months esp in relation to the USP Fund, the Felda funds, the new Palace Project, the PTPTN funds, etc. Then there is the new Matrade Expo centre in Kiara that has a price tag of RM 5 billion.
Nothing has changed. If voters want more of the same, then they can always vote BN and stop whingeing about the theft of public funds.
A swinging pendulum
Only that the swinging pendulum in this case is attracted by the sight and smell of money. It will swing more and more towards the person who has money to offer in exchange for votes.
Ah ya..k1980,pantang lah,say lke that.Already we’re forced to move around like the bull being dragged through the noses for 50 over years.Boycott the pendulum!