‘Fighting cock’ set to ruffle some feathers

Independent candidate Aminah Abdullah is in the mood for revenge and her campaign logo is a set of keys which some say she will use to unlock PKR’s “dirty secrets” in the Penanti by-election.

By JOCELINE TAN, The Star

PKR thought it would be an easy-peasy walkover in Penanti when the Barisan Nasional decided to sit out the by-election.

But it looks like PKR candidate Mansor Ismail cannot take things for granted. He will win hands down but he may find a portion of the Malay vote going one way and the Thai vote going the other.

The three independents are stirring up things, particularly the sole lady candidate Aminah Abdullah, who used to be the Wanita PKR leader for Penang.

This was what some in PKR had feared – that in the absence of a big showdown between two real and credible political parties, the voters would get distracted by the minor players and sideshows.

And Aminah seems to be warming up for the role. She is also in the mood for revenge. She accused PKR of trying to buy her out as a candidate and has threatened to expose the “dirty secrets” of PKR and its leaders.

The lady is a “fighting cock,” as the Penangites like to say of combative people.

Her tough stance surprised reporters who had thought she was just another makcik politician.

“I spoke to her a few days before the nominations. She came across excited and happy to be a candidate. When I urged her to reveal her plans, she giggled and said that if she told me everything now, there would be ‘no thrill left’. Those were her exact words. She surprised me when she started making those threats,” said one journalist.

Aminah opted to use the keys logo for her campaign. Some say that is because she intends to use them to unlock the secrets that she claims to know about PKR.

It is said love and hate are two opposing emotions on the same plane and Aminah now hates PKR as passionately as she used to love the party.

Basically, Aminah felt that her devotion to the party during its early days was not appreciated and that she was cast aside after Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was released.

She was an enthusiastic party member with an activist attitude towards politics which suited the party fine during the reformasi period.

At her height, she was the Wanita PKR chief for Penang as well as the Bukit Bendera division. Her government servant husband, Mohd Rofi Osman, was the Bukit Bendera deputy chief.

But as Anwar prepared to make Penang a frontline state for the 2008 general election, people like Aminah found themselves overshadowed by other more ambitious people and were forced out. By then, everyone wanted to be part of the game .

Finally, in 2007, she quit the party in what seemed like an organised spat of resignations among people aligned to former PKR Youth chief Ezam Mohd Noor.

But PKR people say that while she was hard-working, she was argumentative and did not work well with people.

“A good leader must also be focused. We don’t mind if we are talking about A and she is talking about B.

“But at meetings, we would be talking about A and she would be talking about Z; it was totally off tangent. We just didn’t know what to do with her,” said Batu Maung assemblyman and state exco member Malik Kassim.

Aminah’s current campaign team comprises mainly of her husband and four daughters and it seems to centre around her intense feelings against PKR.

When reporters asked about her schedule after she filed her nomination papers, she said rather candidly: “Kak Min penat, nak balik tidur” (I am tired. I want to go home to rest).

Aminah may not be a credible candidate but she is likely to be the beneficiary of votes from Penanti voters who are Umno members. Pro-Umno voters who might have otherwise stayed home on voting day, will probably cast an anti-PKR vote in her favour.

A chunk of the Thai vote will likely go to one of their own, namely the other independent Nai Khan Ari.

Nai has a track record for community work in his village and his humble body language is a contrast to the aggressive Aminah or unconventional style of the third independent Kamatrul Ramizu Idris.

By most accounts, none of the independents is a proxy of the Barisan Nasional but it is possible that certain local personalities from the Barisan are backing some of these candidates because they want to chip away PKR’s command of the votes.

Meanwhile, the hottest topic at PKR ceramah is not Penang issues or arch enemy Umno but the political impasse in Perak.

The political ripples in Perak have spread to Penang, former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin is a big crowd drawer and people want hear about Perak politics.

Except maybe for PKR’s Malik, who said: “I am dying to know what dirty secrets Aminah has to tell.”