BN sees easy shot with Zaid as goal keeper
“It is good for us that PKR is fielding Zaid. It will be a pleasure to fight him here. Our chances of winning are better now since he has lots of baggage with him,” said Jerlun MP Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir.
By Zainal Epi, Free Malaysia Today
Barisan Nasional sees an easy battle now that PKR is fielding former minister Zaid Ibrahim as its candidate for the Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election.
For one, Zaid is not a local boy, and so he is not in touch with local issues which the upcoming by-election is expected to focus on. Worse still, he may not be able to blend with the locals, some voters here say.
The semi-urban voters of the constituency are mostly working in factories, plantations and their own land and bread-and-butter issues are their daily worries. National issues, which Zaid is fond of and which brought him into the limelight, are treated as “extraneous” and do not concern them.
“I heard of him (Zaid). PKR members told me he is a righteous man. It’s good but what we want here is someone who can relate to us, someone who can help us solve our local problems such as licensing, garbage collection, developing the town so that our business can grow,” said one shop owner here.
But PKR de facto chief Anwar Ibrahim probably has other plans for Zaid. Anwar may be looking at the larger picture: Zaid is not just a man representing 64,500 voters; more importantly, he is someone who can be a great asset in Parliament to address the bigger issues.
While Anwar probably wants Zaid to be a national player as an MP, the main concern for the party now is how to sell Zaid to the local voters. The 198-majority votes garnered by the late Zainal Abidin Ahmad in the 2008 general election was “unreal” because it reflected more a general anti-government sentiment than a liking for PKR, according to folks here.
