Batu Sapi: Two little Goliaths and a Giant David
By Rizzku
News headlines frequently pictures both Ansari Abdullah (PKR) and Yong Teck Lee (SAPP) as the Goliaths while Linda Tsen (PBS-BN) as the biblical character of the teen David. Of course, everybody knows what happened in the story, the little teenager eventually slayed Goliath and won the battle.
Unfortunately in Batu Sapi by-election, both of these little Goliaths are fighting each other and only occasionally throw their sling stones toward the giant David. There are not supposed to be two Goliaths. It is supposed to be one to one fight. A Goliath and a ‘David’!
They said Ansari Abdullah and Yong Teck Lee are the Goliaths. Well, Yong Teck Lee may be, not sure about Ansari Abdullah. Yong Teck Lee is a former Chief Minister of Sabah and President of his party. Ansari meanwhile has no history of winning any election battles before and not holding any party positions worth to be called a Goliath.
Linda Tsen is not really a someone you can call a rookie in politics either. She is the vice president and executive council member of the Sabah’s PBS Wanita ‘s (Women’s) central leadership. She is also the the deputy chief of PBS Elopura division Wanita wing. Not to forget, she is backed by mighty BN machinery and money in this battle. She is no way the little teenager ‘David’ you would picture from the biblical story. That is why she should be instead referred as the giant ‘David’.
In the eventuality that Linda Tsen (BN) win this by election, it is a misnomer to call her as a giants slayer. The reason is, she is only against two little giants (one is hardly a giant). Furthermore, these two ‘giants’ are busy fighting among themselves, for heaven’s sake.
Lets have a deeper look at these ‘goliaths’ and ‘david’.
Ansari Abdullah (PKR) is a prominent lawyer in Sabah. His counsel is much sought after both from opposition camps as well some from (surprisingly) BN people. He is also known to have provided free legal counsels to poor people who are in need. At one time he was the State PKR chief in Sabah and currently is the PKR chief in the district of Tuaran Sabah. He was picked to be the PKR candidate mainly because of his status a muslim bumiputra as well as being a well known figure in Sabah’s PKR leadership.
A win for Ansari Abdullah will be the beginning of PKR tsunami in Sabah. Sabah is probably the only state left untouched by the previous GE tsunami. While PKR cuts deeply into BN majority votes, none of its candidate won (DAP however won 1 state seat and 1 parliamentary seat). Some have aptly called Sabah as PKR land’s of much wind but no wave. If Ansari won, PKR will have a foot hold in Sabah in which it will be used as a launch pad for the successive and credible campaigns against BN in Sabah. This will obviously dent all the arrogance of UMNO and BN components party in Sabah.
PKR in Sabah however is very much fragmented. The absence of several prominent PKR leaders in supporting Ansari Abdullah campaigns in Batu Sapi is the evidence of this. Sure, fights and disagreements exist in all political party. However, as one wise man says, it is not so much of us loving Pakatan Rakyat, but it is how much we hate BN. With all these snub-happenings in PKR Batu Sapi, one cannot help but wonder whether all these other PKR leaders are really ‘hating’ BN.
Yong Teck Lee (SAPP) as mentioned above is a very senior politician. He was a Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah once. He is the founding and president of SAPP. He was once banned from contesting due to election offence. Wrongly or rightly, his name has been associated with many controversial issues in Sabah, namely the influx of illegals immigrants, the lackluster performance of Saham Amanah Sabah and many other issues. Not to mention he was recently investigated by MACC soon after his exit from BN.
