Troubled opposition
Manek Urai: Torn between denial and admitting setback
On Tuesday, PAS was shocked by an extremely narrow win of just 65 votes in keeping the Manek Urai state seat in Kelantan. Its vote majority was slashed from 1,300 in the general election last year.
By Carolyn Hong, The Straits Times
A day after PAS barely squeaked to victory in a by-election in its stronghold of Kelantan, the opposition is torn between bravado and admitting that a warning signal has been sounded.
Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday that the win is “still a win”.
“The point is, we have won all the by-elections in Peninsular Malaysia,” he told reporters during a break in his sodomy trial yesterday.
He claims Umno is now almost lifeless but said the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition was bogged down by “perception issues”. The coalition has been embroiled in in-fighting in recent weeks.
Kelantan PAS leader Husam Musa also said the party had managed to fend off the intense onslaught of Umno, which used its extensive resources to win the hearts of the rural voters.
But this bravado is not shared by everyone in the opposition, or even within PAS itself.
DAP leader Lim Kit Siang called the by-election result a “shocker”. “It is a salutary warning to Pakatan Rakyat parties and leaders who think that Pakatan Rakyat can indulge in the luxury of excesses and internal strife, mistakenly believing that Pakatan Rakyat is riding on such an irresistible political wave that it could not possibly lose in any by-election or in the next general election,” he wrote in his blog.
On Tuesday, PAS was shocked by an extremely narrow win of just 65 votes in keeping the Manek Urai state seat in Kelantan. Its vote majority was slashed from 1,300 in the general election last year.
The seat, which fell vacant upon the death of the PAS assemblyman in May, was its stronghold. It had lost the seat only twice since independence.
In part, the drop in support was due to the rift in PAS's top leadership over one faction's push for closer ties with Umno. This is opposed by another faction that wants to go with the opposition.
Umno capitalised strongly on this in its campaign. It told voters that Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Nik Aziz Nik Mat was a stumbling block to Malay unity. Nik Aziz, who is also the party's spiritual leader, leads the anti-Umno faction.
Manek Urai is about 100km from the state capital of Kota Baru, and accessible by winding narrow roads.
Umno won in five of the nine polling districts, and in three of these, it had made pledges for development projects.
Deputy Premier Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had promised that the federal government would build a RM7 million bridge to link the villages in Manek Urai Lama and Manek Urai Baru if Umno won.
The villages, separated by a river, now have only a one-lane bridge which must be shared in turns by vehicles in different directions.
Umno won the youth vote narrowly, by about 3 per cent.
PAS held on to the four polling districts that are more remote, including areas which had been settled under land schemes initiated by the PAS government in Kelantan.
“Amenities are greatly needed in areas like Manek Urai,” said PAS MP Dzulkefly Ahmad, a former head of the party's research unit and election strategist.
He said Umno had the advantage of being in a position of power to deliver, and PAS had become over-confident of late.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said yesterday that Barisan Nasional's hairline defeat in Manek Urai is “a moral victory and marks the return of the people's confidence in the coalition”.
PAS leaders yesterday slammed the Umno strategy as bribery. They claimed that millions had been spent to buy votes through development pledges, community projects and direct cash to voters.
But it is a reminder that rural voters have different concerns from urban ones.
“It's a wake-up call, and we should not be in denial that we have lost some ground,” said Dzulkefly.
