The meaning of Permatang Pasir

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Aug 26, 2009

(The Nut Graph) IT was a by-election the Barisan Nasional (BN) knew it would lose, but had to fight anyway. Unable to use the same excuse it had for opting out of Penanti, the BN went into Permatang Pasir disadvantaged from the start with its choice of candidate.

Rohaizat Othman lost to PAS's Mohd Salleh Man by 4,551 votes — a dip in margin from the 5,433 obtained by the Islamist party in the 2008 general election, but a comfortable margin nonetheless. This drop comes with a reduced voter turnout of 73%, compared with 82% last year.

Permatang Pasir was a by-election of little significance to the balance of power in the Penang government. Salleh defended a seat PAS has held for the last three terms.

Still, his victory means the Pakatan Rakyat (PR)'s tripartite alliance remains intact in the state legislative assembly. Additionally, Salleh will soon assume the post of Penang Islamic Religious Council president. This would be a welcome bonus to PAS, which was not given an executive council post in the state government after the general election.

The by-election also clearly indicates sentiment towards the PR and the BN, given the PR's internal problems of late, and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's recent moves to liberalise the economy and re-brand Malaysian unity.

In the lead

But PAS was already the lead horse before the by-election candidates were announced, based on a canvassing exercise among Permatang Pasir voters by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research.

Director Ibrahim Suffian told The Nut Graph that those queried said they were concerned about the economy and lack of local amenities and services. Yet, their support was already leaning towards PAS even before they knew of Rohaizat's disbarment.

BN candidate Rohaizat (Pic
courtesy of theSun) "It suggests some amount of cynicism towards the federal ruling government despite their concerns about livelihood issues," Ibrahim said in a phone interview.

As such, the BN's choice of a bad candidate only made its chances harder. Its development promise to make Permatang Pasir the federal government's "anak emas" also had little impact on voters.

Neither did voters accept Umno's racial rhetoric to rally the Malay Malaysian vote around the BN's candidate. Nor was the exploitation of inter-racial issues like Selangor's beer sales dispute and the Kedah PAS government's closure of a pig abattoir effective in convincing voters about ideological differences within the PR.

Other topics, like Teoh Beng Hock's death and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's investigation of Selangor PR assemblypersons, were not posed to Permatang Pasir voters by Merdeka Center, but these were exploited by PR ceramah to stir emotions. Yet, these were not definitive issues, but merely piggybacked on prevailing national sentiment on corruption and abuse of power in government institutions.