Monday, April 26, 2010

Money Speaks Louder Than Words?

Hantu Laut

Is it glorious victory for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak? Has his perseverance paid off? A win is a win, but UMNO must take stock of the slim majority.

Pakatan is not yet a pushover. For UMNO, it would still be a long bumpy ride on the road to recovery.Depending how they conduct themselves from now on, recovery can be like the receding horizon, they'll never get there.

The result of the Hulu Selangor by-election shows that PR is still a force to be reckoned with and still have its tenacious claw on the people. The BN bigger war chest smoothed the rough edges.Pork-barrel politics with poor pay back.With so much goodies offered the return was minimal.

The Chinese voters are still solidly anchored to DAP giving Pakatan the bulk of the vote pool.MCA and Gerakan looked like sick dogs, unable to revive the Chinese support.Samy and other MIC leaders should eat the humble-pie.With hindsight, the result would have been different if Najib had caved in to Samy's demand. The return of the Indians has nothing to do with Samy or MIC.Credit should be given to Najib's direct foray into the Indian community and his insistence of a new face as the candidate.

He may have to do the same with the Chinese community rather than flogging the dead horses in his stable.

He may have to woo the various Chinese clan associations to get his message across to the Chinese community.The massive dose of anti BN venom injected by DAP into the community need a special antidote to cure.MCA and Gerakan have absolute zero credibility making them paraplegics.

There have been cases where MCA campaigners were told not to come to certain Chinese areas and were told to screw themselves if they dare come.

Loss of the seat to BN would further erode the confidence of members of PKR.More exodus of its member should be expected including elected representatives who are not happy with the treatment they get from the top leadership.PKR, is the weakest link in the coalition and the most likely to implode. UMNO, should up the ante toward the disintegration of PKR.

Prime Minister Najib said there was no vote-buying but pork-barrel politics obviously had pulled the fence sitters and alms seekers to sway to the carrot on a stick.Najib needs to find
a better formula to bring the people back to the fold.Pork-barreling is not the right tool.

UMNO leaders should not rejoice from this victory.It's too close for comfort.It is more a reprieve rather than a win based on shifting of supports.

The BN is not out of the woods yet, but it's a start.

5 comments:

Donplaypuks® said...

Despite all the pork barrel politics, it was a close call with the margin of victory of under 2,000. DPM Muhy had predicted a victory margin of 6,000!!

Your conclusion that Najib should not be complacent is spot on. If after dishing out $167 million you get such a close run in, clearly all that talk of taking back Selangor is yet a pipe dream!!

dpp
we are all of 1 race, the Human Race

Anonymous said...

IT LOOK LIKE THE CHINESE IS STILL NOT VOTING FOR BN, AND THE MALAYS ARE GOING BACK TO BN, SHOULD WE NOW ONLY PUT CANDIDATE FOLLOWING THE MOST MAJORITY, THIS WILL ENSURE BN WILL WIN

eddy said...

1.I do not agree with you dpp, the HS byelection was a good victory and indeed should be savoured by the BN. The BN had started the battle on the offensive and had PR back pedalling all the way and they even had to bring in the almost retired Nik Aziz to push them forward a bit. Had the 700 odd spoilt votes (no doubt complaint about Malay candidate not being considered) were counted it would have breached almost 2500.

2.Having said all that I agree with Bro HL that Najib have much work to do but in this instance HS is a start of the long war to recapture the Crown jewel of states, Selangor and by the next GE13 if push comes to shove and if the Chinese are still not supporting the BN then MCA/Gerakan candidates should be pitted against DAP candidates while UMNO/MIC will pit against PKR and PAS in malay majority areas. Politics is dirty and cruel, if you cannot stand the heat do not complain and whine and demand too much...just get out of the kitchen.

Purple Haze said...

If there is one thing that still holds in Malaysian politics is that money can buy lots of votes in the rural areas.

Not so true in the urban areas.

That, in a nutshell, is Malaysian politics.

One wonders how the landscape will change if there is internet penetration in the rural areas.

Unknown said...

By treating your other Citizen as "Second class", the country as a whole is also rated "second class" by default by the rest of the World. Until you all learn like in the rest of the world, that the best policy should NOT be based on race but rather in using the strengths from all races to build a better Malaysia, no progress is going be made by the country as a whole in competing on the world stage. Malaysia will always be "second class country" in the eyes of other countries like Singapore or US.