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Posted: 03 May 2013 11:23 AM PDT

On the whole, however. Selangor, the most fought after state by both BN and PR, saw relatively smooth campaigning from both sides, with only a few reports of violence. The many independents contesting the seats – both parliament and state – added to the colour of the 13th general election. But the main fights remained between BN and PR.

by Zakiah Koya and N Shashi Kala, fz.com

YOU could say that Barisan Nasional (BN) started campaigning in Selangor beginning in February, when BN chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak was appointed state election director. His appointment was a clarion call for the coalition to redouble its efforts to wrest Selangor back from Pakatan Rakyat.

The state's importance to BN could also be seen in the Selangor BN Manifesto, which was launched two days before nomination day on April 20. The manifesto contained a whole list of pledges of goodies and services covering every imaginable spectrum and designed to appeal to the rakyat, including free water and affordable homes.

PR had earlier unveiled its manifesto for this state and the similarities between the two had both sides accusing each of plagiarism.

Pakatan has been quite vocal about what it believes will be massive cheating by BN come polling day. Their concerns are especially focused on the 134,675 newly registered voters from 2008 in the state, some of whom, they allege, were registered without their knowledge. Attempts to get the Election Commission, and subsequently the courts, to look into the fraudulent registration claims in the gazetted electoral roll have however failed.

Still, the campaigning period has been an interesting one in Selangor. Caretaker prime minister Najib has made repeated trips – more than five times in two weeks – to different parts of the state to personally boost the BN candidates.

PR, on the other hand, did not really draw their big guns here – DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng made a few appearances – and instead they brought out one of Umno's old guns to stir the pot. Former MB Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd Taib, now a new PAS member, did cause some stir with his rather strange rantings about Jews and Christians, but his impact was rather limited to a few Malay majority areas that were his former stomping grounds.

It was also obvious that PR candidates made sure that Selangorians have the full facts of the successes of caretaker MB Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and his government officials. The management of the state's coffers was bandied at every ceramah. The manifestos not only promised they will do better than what they have done for the past five years but that they will be fulfilling the promises that they have yet to fulfil as promised in the GE12.

One of the biggest gambles of PR in Selangor was moving caretaker MB Khalid to Port Klang from Ijok.

As Khalid was instrumental in managing the state coffers for the past five years, this was seen as a strategy to boost Khalid's popularity which has been declining among Selangorians for his hard stance. Khalid has been accused of being more of a corporate man than a politician while he was the MB.

Should Khalid win in Port Klang, it would be an endorsement of his managerial skills as MB, but if he were to lose, it would clear the way for others jostling for the position.

PR also did not wait to dig for dirt when it accused five of the Selangor BN candidates of having degrees from the milling universities. But that led nowhere and even PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli – himself a candidate for the Pandan constituency – seemed strangely quiet.

In Selangor, the issue of overlapping candidacy also cropped up in Kota Damansara where PKR and PAS candidates faced off each other in a six-way fight with Barisan Nasional and Independent candidates. The matter was soon resolved with PAS Ridzuan Ismail being asked to give way to PSM's head Dr Nasir Hashim, who was contesting under the PKR banner.

But there was no such resolution in Semenyih, where PSM and PKR fought over who should stand for the state seat. In the end, S Arutchelvam of PSM – who had earlier said that he was PR-friendly – is now facing off against Hamidi Hasan of PKR and BN's Johan Abdul Aziz for the state seat. BN had a few missteps as well, not the least the choice of candidate for Shah Alam. By putting Datuk Zulkifli Noordin of Perkasa against PAS' moderate incumbent Khalid Samad, Najib probably thought to appeal to the Malay majority voters – many who are young – in the constituency.

But it backfired as Zulkifli proved to be a polarising choice, with even MIC members protesting against the man who had repeatedly insulted non-Muslims. Attempts to portray Zulkifli as having "repented" too didn't gain much traction.

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Pakatan for Parliament, STAR for state?

Posted: 02 May 2013 04:41 PM PDT

This seems to be a tacit understanding among the village communities in Sabah.

Across Sabah the feeling seems to be mutual, but BN and its arch rival Pakatan claim such distinctions (dividing the votes between Pakatan and STAR) among "simple-minded" villagers is not possible.

(FMT) - KOTA KINABALU: There seems to a silent, tacit agreement among village communities here that they should vote Pakatan Rakyat into Parliament and help Jeffrey Kitingan's State Reform Party (STAR) with the state seats.

While the idea may not catch on, Partners of Community Organisations (Pacos) founding member Anne Lasimbang believes the ground sentiments for such "sharing" are real.

"STAR has been working on the ground for more than two years. The villagers all want to 'tukar baju' but have mostly decided, especially in the interior, that they must divide their vote between Pakatan and STAR," she said, adding that she herself had met villagers recently who gave her the feedback.

Several members of Lasimbang's family are involved with various political parties in the polls.

Her brother Philip is contesting as a Barisan Nasional candidate in the Moyog parliamentary constituency, while her relatives Melanie Anol and Bernard Solibun are contesting under the STAR banner. Anol is a parliamentary candidate in Penampang while Solibun is contesting for the Moyug state seat.

Lasimbang said BN may dismiss the possibility of a change, but when it does come it will be a big wave.

"It was the same in 1985. We can already feel… there is a groundswell for tukar [change]… it is an exciting time for Sabah.

"In 1985, we were young. We wanted change in Sabah but we did not know the power of the federal government.

"But now we are clear. We must change the federal government in Sabah," she said, adding that it is wrong to underestimate Sabahans because they have a record of rising against oppressions in the past.

Don't compare Musa with Harris

Across Sabah the feeling seems to be mutual, but BN and its arch rival Pakatan claim such distinctions (dividing the votes between Pakatan and STAR) among "simple-minded" villagers is not possible.

"Kampung people don't think like that, bah," said one BN campaigner, adding that STAR's assaults are "insignificant".

But strangely enough for all the pre-nomination bravado, STAR flags are hardly visible in the urban areas.

But drive out into the interior and you hear "Ini Kali lah" as the constant greeting alongside "tukar" – Pakatan's tagline.

BN on its part is confident that its fixed deposits will vote them back into power.

Said a campaigner from caretaker Chief Minister Musa Aman's camp: "Sabah won't fall. Musa will be back. Sure, we will lose may be 8 to 10 parliamentary seats, but this has all been factored in. The states seats will remain with Musa."

Sabah has 25 parliamentary and 60 state seats.

In the 1985 election, then ruling Berjaya and its chief minister Harris Salleh voiced the same bravado, but eventually saw themselves crash with the party retaining six of the then 48 state seats and Harris himself losing in Tenom constituency.

"You cannot compare Musa to Harris. Harris fell because of his arrogance, Labuan, and what he did in Tambunan against [Joseph] Pairin [Kitingan].

"Musa is different. He talks less but is approachable. People like him and he has brought development to the state," said the campaigner, adding that the 13th general election was more than just pumping in money into the interior.

Rumours has it that the GE13 has cost Musa RM5 billion but where the money went and is still going is anyone's guess.

Posted: 02 May 2013 12:27 PM PDT

by Himanshu Bhatt, fz.com

"DAP leaders must be prepared to come out of their safe seats to fight high-risk constituencies for the sake of the people and party." - Lim Kit Siang (November 20, 1999)

When Lim Kit Siang openly shared his feelings to a crowd in Penang last Monday on the heavy task he faces in contesting the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat in Johor, the occasion must have been more than just a fortuitous one.

The DAP supremo admitted to having apprehensions about winning Gelang Patah where Barisan Nasional (BN) has placed its biggest local name - Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, the Mentri Besar of Johor since 1995 - to surmount Kit Siang's onslaught on the state.

It was uncanny that Kit Siang, 72, should open up about his foreboding to a rally here. It was, after all, in Penang that way back in 1990 he had chosen to contest against another political giant - (Tun) Dr Lim Chong Eu, Penang's chief minister of 21 years - vanquishing him in one of the most dramatic encounters in Malaysian electoral history.

Chong Eu's famous defeat in the Padang Kota state constituency which he had represented for years signalled his abrupt and total exit from politics and government. Despite the stature that he gained for turning Penang into a modern industrial powerhouse, Chong Eu was hardly seen and heard again in public until he passed away in November 2010.

Now, all eyes will be on Gelang Patah come May 5 when millions of Malaysians vote during the 13th General Election. Should Kit Siang again succeed in banishing a chief minister, 67-year old Abdul Ghani may well follow Chong Eu's footsteps and retire from a lengthy career at the pinnacle of government.

However, should Abdul Ghani prevail, Kit Siang's voice would be absent from the august halls of Parliament for only the second time since 1969.

"Until now I don't know if I am safe or not in Gelang Patah," he told the 50,000-strong crowd at the Han Chiang School field - the very ground on which the DAP had held a mammoth rally just before the last general election of March 2008.

Sensing the crowd's almost delirious support for the DAP and the reformation it espouses, Kit Siang commented: "If voters in Gelang Patah are like you I would not be so uncertain, but this is not the case. This is a very risky move because when I won Ipoh Timur it was by more than 21,000 votes in 2008."

One can understand Kit Siang's anxiety from a statistical viewpoint. The BN, through its component the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), won Gelang Patah in 2008 by a margin of about 9,000 votes, and before that in 2004, by a whopping 31,666 majority.

A legacy of electoral roaming

Kit Siang may well have recalled another instance when he ran against a chief minister - and lost. This was in 1995 when he took a risk by challenging Chong Eu's successor Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon at the latter's state stronghold of Tanjung Bungah.

Kit Siang lost by a margin of some 70%, though he managed a convincing win at parliamentary level, maintaining his hold on the Tanjung seat.

As a matter of record, Kit Siang has in fact moved between seats across the country several times, at both state and parliamentary levels; each not without its share of drama and intrigue.

In the general election of July 1978, he moved from the Kota Melaka parliamentary constituency he had previously held to contest and win the Petaling seat. In April 1982, he returned to Kota Melaka to win it again; but moved from his state stronghold, the Kubu state assembly seat in Malacca, to contest the Bandar Hilir state assembly seat - and lost.

In August 1986, he switched from Kota Melaka to Tanjung in Penang which he won; and in March 2004, he took on and wrested the Ipoh Timur parliamentary seat.

In the midst of this, in November 1999, he lost both his parliamentary and state races, for Bukit Bendera and Kebun Bunga respectively.

Ominously enough, Kit Siang had this to say in November 1999, after deciding to take on local Gerakan big names for the two seats in Penang: "DAP leaders must be prepared to come out of their safe seats to fight high-risk constituencies for the sake of the people and party."

Though he lost, his words then may well have presaged his leap into Gelang Patah in 2013.

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Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Jumaat, 3 Mei 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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