Why PAS lost Kedah to BN
BN state communications chairman Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah claims that the people are fed up with PAS who didn’t deliver when they were running the state.
By Azli Jamil, FMT
The people’s disillusionment over the bickering PAS administration, a well-managed campaign by Barisan Nasional and the Mukhriz Mahathir factor, are the main reasons why BN won Kedah back from Pakatan Rakyat in the 13th General Election.
BN walked away from a successful campaign with wins in 21 out of 36 state seats and 10 out of the 15 parliamentary seats in the state. By comparison, BN only managed four parliamentary seats and 14 state seats in the last GE.
“The people are fed up with PAS who didn’t deliver when they were running the state,” BN state communications chairman Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah told The Malaysian Reserve yesterday. “People were not impressed with what PAS had done when it was in power.”
“Now BN will do its utmost to deliver what it promised in its AkuJanji manifesto. People of Kedah also felt that PAS needed to prove that they were capable and not only to rely on their name.
“Kedah is not like Kelantan. We are more flexible and people are not too fixated on PAS,” said a Kedahan politician who declined to be named.
He said many Kedahans are also proud that the state has produced two prime ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who are both from BN.
During its five year administration of the state, PAS did not do its cause any favours by frequently providing fodder for the newspaper about mismanagement, internal strife and disunity even within the state government.
Mahathir’s son, Mukhriz, giving up his parliamentary seat to contest and win the state seat of Ayer Hitam was also seen as a factor which swayed voters because he is seen as able to attract big projects to the state. One day before GE13, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced that Mukhriz would be appointed mentri besar if BN were to win Kedah.
