So why did PKR lose in Hulu Selangor?
It was rather anticipated that Barisan Nasional would snatch the Hulu Selangor seat yesterday from right under Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) nose and without giving too much credit to the former, two factors contributed to this somewhat predestined outcome.
First, the notoriously poor and inefficient machinery. The second is the candidate factor itself.
PKR’s Datuk Zaid Ibrahim lost to MIC information chief P. Kamalananthan by a 1,725-vote majority. The former law minister garnered 23,272 votes while his opponent, a public relations practitioner whose qualifications were subject to tactical scrutiny by Zaid and Co, bagged 24,997 votes.
Yes, there were strong intrinsic statistical factors that led to Zaid’s loss as reflected by past voting patterns. After all, the sizeable constituency of 64,500 eligible voters has been opposition-proof up until the unpopular Datuk G. Palanivel, a four-term incumbent, was dethroned in Election 2008.
But let us not allow this factor give PKR the convenience of an excuse.
In politics, no fight is impossible to win. Did the opposition not prove this axiom right when boasting of its unprecedented success in Election 2008?
In his short and simple tweet, Klang DAP MP Charles Santiago noted that Pakatan (what he intended to say is PKR, I presume) had lost out to its rivals in the machinery battle. Now exclude the “money” and the “intimidation” part, without devaluing its merits, the veracity of the Santiago’s concise assessment on Pakatan’s defeat hit the bull’s eye.
Anyone on the ground throughout PR’s eight-day campaigning trail would, without a doubt, concur.
PKR’s Hulu Selangor election machinery was phenomenally hopeless. It was frayed, uninspiring, shoddy. Too many “egos” were involved. To be straightforward without revealing too much, there were “three” egos involved.
Ground reports and observation showed PKR’s machinery was slow to move. Complaints were ever loud of how campaign materials arrived only after the third day of campaigning.
They lacked co-ordination. The string-pullers on the ground were too busy busting and nurturing their local image as low-level leaders and instead of co-operating, they engaged in a popularity contest among themselves. The PKR machinery was divided into many camps. This paralysed them.
And it is no exaggeration to say that PKR campaigners were arrogant. They refused to work hand in hand with their PAS and DAP counterparts. If there was any collaboration at all, it was half-baked.
