High stakes in Bagan Pinang
By Shanon Shah, The Nutgraph
“IF the Barisan Nasional (BN) loses, it will be catastrophic,” Umno Youth chief and Rembau Member of Parliament Khairy Jamaluddin tells The Nut Graph in a phone interview.
Talk about high stakes. But he is right. The BN has lost six out of the eight by-elections held after the historic 8 March 2008 general election. It only managed to retain Batang Ai in Sarawak, and technically did not lose the Penanti seat to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) because it did not contest. And so, as Khairy says, “this is a crucial victory” for the BN to keep its hopes up for the next general election, which is due by 2013.
A victory in Bagan Pinang is no less crucial for the Pakatan Rakyat (PR). Of the six by-elections it has won since March 2008, five have been in PR incumbencies. The only constituency that the PR managed to wrest away from the BN was the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat in January 2009.
Negeri Sembilan may hang in the BN’s favour, but it hangs rather precariously. It is to the BN what Perak was to the PR prior to the state assembly takeover in February 2009. The BN currently rules Negeri Sembilan with a simple majority. Before this by-election, it held 21 out of the 36 seats, while the PR had 15. Granted, it is not as insecure a gap as what the PR faced in Perak, but the BN probably does not want the gap narrowed in any way.
So, what are some of the crucial issues that stand in the way of victory for both the BN and the PR, which they are likely to exploit during the campaign?
PAS paraphernalia
The Isa factor
PAS vice-president and the PR’s Bagan Pinang election director Salahuddin Ayub tells The Nut Graph what his party intends to highlight. “We do not plan to play with personal issues, but we really need to ask if the BN is serious about upholding integrity?” he says in a phone interview.
“It does not matter who the candidate is. The BN did it in the Permatang Pasir by-election, and is repeating it in Bagan Pinang,” he explains.
By Permatang Pasir, Salahuddin is of course referring to the BN’s mind-boggling decision to field Umno’s Rohaizat Othman as the candidate, a lawyer who was disbarred by the Bar Council for swindling a client. Rohaizat eventually lost by 4,551 votes — not a close call.
And by Bagan Pinang, Salahuddin is referring to the BN’s candidate from Umno, former Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad. In 2005, Isa was found guilty of money politics by Umno’s disciplinary board and was initially suspended by the party for six years. Upon appeal, the sentence was commuted to three years and eventually ended in June 2008.
Even Umno veterans Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah have voiced their disapproval of the BN fielding a tainted candidate like Isa.
Khairy, however, disagrees. “This is very, very different from Permatang Pasir. Isa Samad is very different — he is the godfather of Teluk Kemang politics. The tainted candidate in Permatang Pasir was an unknown.”
