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BN’s victory ‘superficial’

Jeswan Kaur| May 7, 2013
Free Malaysia Today

BN’s dirty tricks to win the 13th general election will never be forgotten; the time for retribution will come slowly but surely.

COMMENT

Ruling coalition Barisan Nasional has little reason to gloat over its win in the May 5 general election.

Violence, phantom voters and the unreliable indelible ink were only part of the shenanigans BN resorted to in its bid to secure Putrajaya.

Victory however was far from sweet for BN; not only did it fail to reclaim a two-third majority, the 13th general election also sent home the message that the rakyat, in particular the ‘thinking’ generation want “representatives” who respect them, their faiths and who ‘walk the talk’.

Despite BN’s extensive propaganda, good sense thankfully prompted voters to reject candidates such as Malay extremist party Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali who was knocked out by PAS’ Nik Abdul Nik Aziz in Pasir Mas, Kelantan.

In the 2008 general election, Ibrahim won the seat under the PAS ticket. He later contested as an independent candidate for the Pasir Mas parliamentary seat.

Also shown the door was Perkasa vice-president Zulkifli Noordin, who riled up the Hindus with his insensitive remarks about the religion.

Shah Alam incumbent MP Khalid Samad beat Zulkifli with a slight increase in majority. He polled 48,835 votes to Noordin’s 38,084.

Ibrahim despite receving full backing from former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad endorsing him as a BN candidate did not make the cut.

As for Zulkifli, despite being racist to the core, he was BN’s choice for the Shah Alam parliamentary seat; maybe it was poetic justice that brought an end to Zulkifli’s active stint in politics, for shortly before he was named as the BN candidate, Zulkifli invited trouble by belittling the Hindu deities.

In the 2008 general election, Zulkifli contested for the Kulim-Bandar Bahru parliamentary seat under the Pakatan Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) ticket.

Zulkifli’s announcement as the BN candidate prompted his rival Khalid to deduce that the decision to move from Kulim-Bandar Baharu to Shah Alam showed that Zulkifli had no confidence in retaining the seat.

BN big-wigs rejected

Also making an unceremonious exit were several BN big-wigs, namely Federal Territories and Urban Well-being minister Raja Nong Chik Zainal, deputy education Mohd Puad Zarkashi, Transport minister Kong Cho Ha, Plantation Industries and Commodities minister Bernard Dompok and SK Devamany, who was minister in the prime minister’s department.

Raja Nong Chik lost Lembah Pantai by 1,847 votes to incumbent MP Nurul Izzah Anwar.

Mohd Puad lost by a mere 1,732 to PKR’s Mohd Idris Jusi in Batu Pahat, Johor.

During his tenure as deputy education minister, Mohd Puad was busy propagating moves to denounce the existence of the LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders) communities, inciting schoools to do the same.

Unlike Mohd Puad, former deputy education minister Saifuddin Abdullah who lost by a mere 1,070 votes to PAS’s Nasrudin Hassan never feared criticising Umno’s excesses or ‘calling a spade a spade’ – but then rumours have it that Saifuddin was a victim of internal sabotage due to his no-nonsense stance.

As for A Kohilan Pillay, revelation by DAP election strategist Ong Kian Ming that the former deputy foreign minister held a fake degree was enough to put the voters off.

Kohilan who contested for the Puchong parliamentary seat had listed in his biodata that he obtained a Masters degree in Commercial and Industrial Economy from the Western Pacific University in the US, which according to Ong was a degree mill and had been closed down by the authorities some time back.

Kohilan, the Selangor Gerakan chief, lost to DAP’s Gobind Singh Deo by a vast vote margin of 32,802.

BN’s victory ‘superficial’

Putrajaya might have escaped the clutches of opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat but the fact remains that unlike BN, the opposition pact has succeeded in winning the rakyat’s trust, especially for states like Penang and Selangor which try as hard as it did, BN failed to recapture.

BN chairman Najib Tun Razak has little reason to believe he has received the people’s mandate and nambikei or trust to lead the country for another five years – the writing is all over the wall as to how BN secured victory in the 13th general election, seen as the most trying for it.

Vote-buying and manipulation of the electoral roll was not uncommon in the May 5, 2013, general election. The use of the so-called indelible ink was yet another trick employed by BN is swinging votes in its favour.

There were instances where several polling stations reported existence of phantom voters being brought to vote at several different locations.

The Lembah Pantai parliamentary seat for one saw an intense standoff when the police attempted to bring several dubious ballot boxes into the counting area.

PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim has cried foul, calling the Election Commission a failure, claiming that something was amiss with the early voting and postal ballots, with foreign nationals casting ballots as early and postal voters.

“The ballots were overwhelmingly in support of Barisan Nasional, which is not in norm with the current voting pattern,” Anwar had said.

BN’s dirty tricks to win the 13th general election will never be forgotten; the time for retribution will come slowly but surely.

14 Replies to “BN’s victory ‘superficial’”

  3. It may be superficial but WE ARE ALL SUPERFICIAL to some extent..

    Najib and UMNO can keep doing what they are doing for a long time. Its why there is no incentive for them to change even if in the long run they are at risk..

    Whether Najib stays in power is decided actually by Mahathir. The UMNO presidency is decided now by more than 60,000 people. Muhiyiddin on his own does not have clout to beat Najib. Mahathir WILL NOT DECIDE – because he knows very well Muhiyiddin ALSO does not have answer to UMNO/BN problem AND Najib’s debt to him ENSURES he can manouvre Mukhriz to have a shot at the job by passing Muhiyiddin.

    Najib will make more cosmetic changes particularly on corruption. Even Mahathir knows its got to look better to take some wind out of PR..Everything else will stay the same for the time being..

  4. My Malay neighbours tell me that the Malay press are having a field day with many unfavourable articles focusing on the supposedly ‘Chinese tsunami’.

    They called the Chinese ‘ungrateful’ for not appreciating what the government have done for them and biting the hands that feeds them. Also, the Chinese are called ‘pretenders’ in that they pretend to support the government but then quietly vote against their benefactors. An ex-CM even said he will never forget those who betrayed him and caused him to lose. And so on.

    In short, the Malay press seems to be playing and even stirring up sentiments which cannot be good.

    As many analysts have commented, it is not a ‘Chinese tsunami’ but the tsunami had been across the board covering all races and this tsunami had reached even the rural areas as can be seen in some parts of Selangor which saw an unprecedented 80% swing to the Opposition, and even in Terengganu.

    Pakatan politicians should immediately counter these biased reporting before it gets out of hand.

  5. ‘The Lembah Pantai parliamentary seat for one saw an intense standoff when the police attempted to bring several dubious ballot boxes into the counting area.’

    We have heard about this many times before and even now. How can this happen?

    All ballots are counted at their respective polling centers and witnessed by the parties polling agents. Further, all the boxes have to be properly accounted for and sealed at the respective polling centers and then brought to the central tallying centers. How can you bring in ‘extra’ boxes then, from where and out of the blue ?

  7. BN gave ‘everything’ to win 2/3 but was shocked by the results.

    A good and responsible government will not go against the wishes of the people.

    It will be a living hell for them until the next election.

  8. ” BN’s victory ‘superficial’ ”

    If the election results are the best Najib can do, despite all his dirty tricks, ‘Transformasi’, BR1Ms and mega free makans etc, etc, then there is only one direction for him……….Downwards, and Out.

  10. Only a racist party would support the candidacy of Ibrahim Ali and Zulkifli Noordin. Thank God, both the racist bigots were soundly defeated. Talking about Nurul Izzah’s defeat of Raja Nong Chik, I was extremely surprised that Nurul only managed to secure a total of 76 police and army votes against Nong Chik’s 1794. Was this possible? I would have thought that the army and police votes received by each candidate should be evenly distributed, much like the voting pattern of the other voters. Luckily, her victory was not stolen.

  13. /// They called the Chinese ‘ungrateful’ for not appreciating what the government have done for them and biting the hands that feeds them. ///

    Hah!- this is rich. Wonder who is feeding whom. It is the rakyat who is feeding the government. It is taxpayers’ money that is feeding the government and the people. And guess who are biggest tax payers? The bulk of the tax revenue are contributed by Chinese. So, go tell your Malay neighbours – be grateful to the hands that feed them.

  14. Why got no stand by power like battery powered light or diesel standby generator,
    why vote boxes are not labelled or have signature of candidates on a label tag or label paper.
    The vote box look too simple, and can be duplicate (with full of dubious votes) when needed as it has no proper label !
    bn got less than 47.5% vote at parliament election
    and less than 43.5% vote at Perak state election, yet they win , where is the fairness ?

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