Bringing back Dr M to lead Kedah

By Farah Azreen, Malaysian Mirror

 

UMNO has been embarrassed by a court ruling that one of its state seats in Kedah is up for grabs  because the incumbent representative had been absent twice in a row from state assembly meetings

Furthermore, the party is in shambles and even with the able stewardship of Umno vice-president Shafie Apdal in Kedah, the party has still not come to terms with last year’s election losses.

The allegedly erratic wakil rakyat Abu Hassan Sarif has filed an appeal to challenge the High Court decision that he is no longer the Kota Siputeh assemblyman and that his state seat is up for grabs.

But many Kedahans are not hopeful of an Umno or Barisan Nasional revival at the by-election, if there is one, or at the next general polls, scheduled to be held in 2013.

At the moment, they see their state as being stable under the Pakatan Rakyat  administration, led by state PAS commissioner Azizan Abdul Razak, albeit a minor dispute concerning the stand taken by the DAP over a pig slaughter house several months back.

Comfortable with Azizan’s leadership

It is said that even some Umno people are comfortable with Azizan, Kedah’s 10th mentri besar and the first from PAS.

Veteran journalist A Kadir Jasin also conceded that among the Pakatan-held state governments, the Kedah administration is the ‘most steady’ and least controversial except for the abattoir incident.

“With the image of the PAS-led state government untarnished, it would be an uphill task for the Barisan to defend the Kota Siputeh seat, in the event a by-election is held,” he said in his blog.

Abu Hassan had defeated his PAS challenger Ismail Wan Teh by 495 votes; polling 8,160 votes against his opponent’s 7,665 votes.

It is understood that PAS may be fielding Ismail again while the Barisan is not likely to give Abu Hassan a second chance as it does not want to be dealing with another ‘tainted’ candidate.

While a random poll, if it is carried out at this time, may suggest that PAS is the favourite to win the by-election, it would be a mistake for the party to under-estimate Umno, which is already moving on the ground to drum support against Azizan’s administration.

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