The war for military votes

But what we do know is that the four retired high-ranking officers who joined PKR recently are already hitting the ceramah circuit with “guns blazing”(pardon the expression) against what they say are “irregularities, corruption and abuse of power of the BN regime”.

 

The four are Datuk Abdul Ghafir Abdul Hamid, Datuk Abdul Hadi Abdul Khatab, Datuk Najmi Ahmad and Imran Abdul Hamid – ranked from General to Lt General to Admiral. All had held high and important posts when serving the forces.

 

The main target group is definitely the men and women of the Malaysian Armed Forces. There are some 161,000 personnel and spouses eligible to vote in the upcoming general election. Add that to the number of retired personnel, we’ll have a massive figure to say the least. And don’t forget the spouses.

 

The four retired generals are attracting attention. So far. Take the ceramah held in Keramat Wangsa in Kuala Lumpur a couple of weeks ago. It was well attended.

 

A strategist closely linked to the Umno president’s office put the crowd at “around 3,000”. He had gone to the ceramah “to see and study the situation”.

 

So what were his “observations”? One was “the four generals are not whole-heartedly with Anwar – more of personal issues with the government and the BN leadership”. Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was present at the ceramah.

 

 “Of the four generals, three are more Islam centric. They should be at PAS ceramah, not PKR. Wrong place,” said the Umno strategist. Except for Abdul Hadi Khatab, the other three donned kopiah and were attired like PAS leaders.

 

The strategist went on to say “ceramah did not have much traction in the area. Mostly outsiders came but not many non-Malays attended. Maintain same issues, Scorpene, missing jet engines etc, no meat.”

 

The venue for the ceramah was in the vicinity, so to speak of Mindef and a military camp. Obviously meeting the “criteria of the Pakatan’s target group”. What more, the issues brought up – Scorpene, jet engines are all said to be close to the heart of armed forces personnel”.

 

The strategist was right that many outsiders came, considering there were armed forces personnel in the crowd. Chances are they had come from the nearby military quarters and Mindef.

 

And as admitted by the Umno strategist “they were overawed by the presence of Najmi Ahmad”. Najmi was former director for the armed forces religious corp or Kagat and brother of PAS leader-turned-Umno man Datuk Nakhaie Ahmad. “Najmi… yes, he might be a little bit of problem,” said the Umno strategist.

 

But said the Umno strategist, of the four generals “Abdul Hadi Khatab is the fiercest but lacks oratory skills and is repetitive in his arguments. He said he will reveal all after the election. What for? Reveal now if he really has the facts. Talk rubbish.”

 

Abdul Hadi Khatab had promised to expose more “scandals in the armed forces” after the election “so that action can be taken”. His supporters believed he was talking in the context of Pakatan coming into power after the election.

 

However, flyers alleging Abdul Hadi Khatab’s “involvement” in the missing jet engine issue have been widely distributed. But the retired general countered by saying “all these allegations came only after I joined PKR”.

 

To a retired army major, “Umno/BN are very worried with this development.”