Public-caning of another kind

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Aug 26, 2009

By Jeff Ooi

Right from the start, I had warned in this blog that someone needed public caning in Permatang Pasir.

And public caning it was. There wasn't a repeat of the 65-vote verdict in Manek Urai that Umno preached.

Rather, it's like a good soccer season and BN was trounced 7-0 in all by-elections held in Peninsula Malaysia since March 2008.

This time, in Permatang Pasir, it was more of Umno which gave us its own goal.

The record shows Umno lost by a majority of 4,551votes which went to PAS despite a 9% reduced turn-out rate. Umno's blunder was obvious. READ Joceline Tan's hindsight on this.

Umno tactics back-fired

BN's racism-laced campaign backfired. The voting pattern showed Malay voters continued to support PR despite Anwar Ibrahim — he runs the parliamentary constituency where-in Parmatang Pasir lies — being labelled "traitor to the Malays".

Umno's racism-stoking mouthpiece also backfired. The voting pattern clearly showed Malay voters didn't buy the venom that DAP is anti-Islam, and that a vote for PAS is a vote for DAP. Rather, the voters agreed with me — something which I said throughout my ceremahs — that a vote for PAS is a vote for Pakatan Rakyat because that's the coalition that is to take Putrajaya the next general election.

Even the Son-in-Law's batu api campaign stance backfired. He challenge Guan Eng to vow to appoint Salleh Man an Exco for Penang state government should PAS win [ READ MY BLOG ]. Guan Eng gave a statesmanly reply but didn't cow. Obviously, the Malay voters didn't even bother the Son-in-Law who alienated his grand-standing.