In the Eye of the Beholder

By G. Krishnan

The post-mortem of the Bagan Pinang by-election provides a fascinating glimpse into the spinning and speculating that has gone on as part of the effort to make some sense of what message or messages the voters in this now firmly held BN constituency were delivering.

We see a whole spectrum of scenarios being offered up, including one by yours truly. There is of course one school of thought that seems to suggest Umno won because the voters were fed-up with the bickering in Pakatan Rakyat and wanted to register their disapproval of such pettiness transparent in the coalition.

Another strain of thinking, not unrelated to the above, touts the lack accomplishments to speak of on the part of Pakatan since assuming control of some key states. Hence, the argument goes, voters wanted results and not just more griping and finger-pointing about the problems with Umno/BN. Salahuddin Ayub’s admission that voters – especially the Chinese and Indians – felt that the coalition had not done enough to redress the concerns of the latter and seemed to be tangled up with their own bickering clearly traverses both the aforementioned explanations.

Incidentally, this argument begs the question: if this was the case, why did the voters not think BN’s loud and public bickering (the problems in MCA, MIC, and even Umno) were not worthy of rejection as well? Hence, why I think this explanation is just too shallow – and one obvious reason I don’t find it compelling.

Read more at: IMAGINE…