8/14/2019 Thesun 2009-08-25 Page06 Falling Durians and Revised Strategies

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news without borders6 theSun | TUESDAY AUGUST 25 2009

comment by Himanshu Bhattnewsdesk@thesundaily.comRESIDENTS of a predominantly Chinese quarter ofthe Samagagah township in mainland Penang havefound themselves caught unawares not once, butthrice, over the past 10 days. Hordes of campaigningBarisan Nasional supporters have descended on thearea in a series of waves that have raised eyebrowsin the otherwise humdrum neighbourhood.

Sitting in an old coffeeshop just last weekend,a group of elderly men stopped their lazy chatterto gaze curiously at BN supporters marching into shake hands with the very folk they met just afew days before.

These political parties come here to shake ourhands whenever there is an election, one of themen was heard telling reporters in Hokkien.

But I dont remember the same people comingagain and again so often like this.

This is the third by-election in the area sinceAugust last year, when the Permatang Pauhparliamentary by-election, won by Datuk SeriAnwar Ibrahim, was held. This was followed by

a by-election on April 1 in the neighbouring stateconstituency of Penanti.

This time, faced by a daunting and completely

unexpected attack on the character and backgroundof its candidate, Rohaizat Othman, the BN has hadto adopt a different approach in its campaign.

If anything, the Permatang Pasir campaignhas been, for the BN, a story of how the coalition,particularly Umno, has had to instantaneouslyre-strategise its tactics in the face of a wholly un-expected variable that plopped in its path.

By the time the full details of Rohaizats disbar-ment, for allegedly mishandling his clients money,was confirmed by the Bar Council early last week,the BN leadership knew that damage controlthrough the mass media alone would not work.

The disbarment issue has meant not justdeploying even more hands to generate publicvisibility, but actual intensified face-to-face interac-tion. Among other things, the state Umno leader-ship had to come up with a strategy to have votersintermingle and be familiarised directly with theBN machinery, so as to help overturn any negativeperceptions they may have.

The first time we meet them, there is a sensethat they dont think too much of us, even rejectus, Umno vice-president and state chairman

Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi said last week.But when we meet them the second time, weneutralise them. And, thankfully, by the third time,they already respond positively to us.

Indeed, amid a flurry of allegations and sala-cious rumours on the lives of both candidates PAS is represented by its state commissionerSalleh Man the BN has been the harder hit.

For PAS, it was a case of durian runtuh (fallingdurians), a Malay maxim for unexpected luck.

In any by-election, the character of a candidateis very important, Kuala Selangor MP and PASresearch unit head Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad said.

And fate itself has presented this candidate(Rohaizat) to us. It is a God-given thing.

But while PAS and its Pakatan Rakyat allies rubtheir hands in glee at the prospect of a by-electionagainst such a controversy-tainted candidate, theyhave been cautious not to cast excessive attackson Rohaizat.

We dont want to overkill Rohaizat, Dzulkifli

said. If we do, then there will be sympathy forhim and resentment towards us. The Malays, theydont like overkill.

In fact, the real race that both sides have focusedon is not so much as to who would win the seat, asmuch as on the majority that PAS would win by.

For the BN, it is now a battle to ensure that the5,433-vote margin won in the last general electionby former PAS assemblyman, the late Datuk MohdHamdan Abdul Rahman, is slashed.

For PAS, it is imperative that Permatang Pasirdoes not become a ground where the BN canboast that the Malay vote is shifting in its favour.Some 72% of Permatang Pasirs 20,290 registeredvoters are Malays.

As it is, BN has been making a big deal of itsslim defeat to PAS in the Manek Urai by-electionlast month by a wafer-thin margin of 65 votes. So,despite the gossips and the exposes, the PermatangPasir by-election is not one to be seen in isolation.

For both sides of the political divide, the nu-merical outcome of the race would emerge as acritical piece in the overall jigsaw that marks theshifting sands of Malaysian politics.

Falling durians and revised strategies

BUKIT MERTAJAM:After seven days of campaign-ing, Barisan Nasional has managed to penetratethe opposition strongholds in Permatang Pasir,Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ahmad ZahidHamidi said.

The Penang Umno liaison chief said yes-terday the partys approach of not viciouslycountering the baseless accusations made bythe Opposition was well received by the localcommunity.

It is not correct to say that areas such asSama Gagah, Permatang Pauh town and Kam-pung Cross Street, where the voters are mainlyChinese, reject BN.

Perhaps before this, they had rejected cer-tain BN leaders from the area and state, he saidafter visiting the BN by-election operations roomin Permatang Rawa here.

Ahmad Zahid said although voters were loyalto the party they supported, the candidate factorcould influence voting.

So, the black areas are not that blackanymore. Although the party is their priority, thevoters also consider the candidate. If they dontfavour the other candidate, they will vote oursinstead.

Ahmad Zahid said the BN is facing an awe-some challenge as Permatang Pasir is located inthe Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituencyrepresented by Parti Keadilan Rakyat adviserDatuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

This is Datuk Seri Anwars stronghold whilePenang is Opposition-ruled state, he said.

Ahmad Zahid is expecting 70 to 75% of the20,290 registered voters of Permatang Pasir tocome out to vote tomorrow. Bernama

BN penetrates PAS strongholds

BUKIT MERTAJAM: The Barisan Nasional (BN)claimed that it had detected 3,696 phantom votersin the Permatang Pasir state constituency, whichis having a by-election tomorrow.

Umno information chief Ahmad Maslan saidbased on BNs study report on voters attitude forthe by-election, these voters could not be tracedfrom the addresses given in the electoral roll.

When we went to give the voting slips to ahouse which was supposed to have 14 registeredvoters, we found there were only seven votersregistered with that house address.

We could not trace the other seven. We weretold by the house owner that they never knewthese named seven voters, he said at a press

conference yesterday.Maslan said 961 phantom voters were de-

tected in Sama Gagah, 95 in Permatang Ara, 284in Permatang Pauh, 142 in Bukit Indera Muda,216 in Kampung Pelet, 329 in Kubang Semang, 74in Tanah Liat Mukim 8, 1,181 in Kampung CrossStreet 2 and 414 in Permatang Tengah.

We have a complete list of voters who couldnot be traced based on the registered addresses.

We suggest that the Election Commission(EC) list the voters in the constituency accordingto the addresses given to facilitate verification,he said, adding that there were Chinese votersregistered with the addresses of Malay homes. Bernama

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Even though the P er-matang Pasir state constituency is a PASstronghold, the party is holding fast to its aimof winning with a one-vote majority.

PAS election director Datuk Mahfuz Omarsaid yesterday the party does not want tohave high hopes of retaining the seat al-though it had early information on the votingstatistics.

Its all in my pocket now. I know howmany votes our candidate will get, how manythe BN candidate will get and therefore themajority for our candidate, he said at a newsconference at the PAS operations room here.

But I do not wish to say as I am afraidthere would be last-minute efforts to sway

PAS supporters. What I can say is that wewant to target a one-vote win.

The Permatang Pasir by-election is a straightbetween Mohd Salleh Man, 52, of PAS andBarisan Nasionals Rohaizat Othman, 38.

Mahfuz said his party was satisfied withits election machinery.

PAS hopes that voters make a goodchoice and we leave it to them.

He said PAS did not politicise or madepersonal attacks on the alleged financialmisappropriation involving Rohaizat and hisformer law firm partner Yusri Isahak.

What we did was exposure and allega-tions that we politicised and made attacks onRohaizat are not true, he said.

He was commenting on Yusris expres-sion of sadness on the personal attacks onRohaizat following his statement on the landdeal involving the Penang Rubber Smallhold-ers Cooperative.

Yusri was reported saying that variousallegations had been made that were againsthis original intention of making a press state-ment and had expressed sympathy on thesituation faced by Rohaizat. Bernama

BN detects 3,696 phantom voters

Election Commission assistant Norazimah Jamaludin makes final preparations at a polling centrein SK Permatang Pasir.

PAS targets a one-vote win