Why didn’t Anwar showcase unity and enliven mosques in Permatang Pauh?
Hazlan Zakaria, The Ant Daily
While PKR specifically and Pakatan Rakyat in general may have scored a minor victory with their move in Kajang, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s campaign tactics may raise questions that can shoot them in the foot.
Firstly, the PKR de facto leader is blatantly circumventing Election Commission’s rules against early campaign with his “walkabouts” to explain the Kajang move and launch various campaign machinery. That is not right, Anwar.
I would not bat an eyelid that BN itself is already doing the same, but it stuck in my throat that PKR and Pakatan who clamour for electoral reform and said they do not contravene election rules are already using such loopholes. Surely, two wrongs do not make a right!
And as for his almost nightly ceramah, one of the things Anwar promised is that he is going to “imarahkan” or enliven mosques in Kajang and use the town as a platform to showcase unity.
As they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating, one wonders if he had the time to do those things in his parliamentary constituency of Permatang Pauh.
Was Permatang Pauh a showcase of unity? How did Anwar enliven the mosques there?
He may get away with claiming to have good reasons to contest and displace PKR’s former holder of the seat, but making such promises makes me wonder why he was never recorded delivering those promises to Permatang Pauh first?
Of perhaps he has, though it is one thing that must have escaped my attention if it did happen.
Permatang Pauh would be a good showcase as any in Pakatan’s Putrajaya pursuit, after Anwar took the seat from his wife who had to step down for him. Why wait now for the seat he is taking from former PKR Kajang representative, Lee Chin Cheh? Deja vu anyone?
But whatever one may consider the Kajang move to be, like PKR purportedly wanted, it did turn Kajang into ground zero — the flash point for the political turmoil yet to come.
Indeed it has also caught Umno slightly off guard as even up till now, it seems to be still divided on whether BN should face Pakatan in the upcoming by-election.
While BN’s stock “sex attacks” and racially-based stoking have lost much traction, PKR and Anwar seem quite adept at taking on each service that BN tries to smash at them.
But despite that, no “Sidek Service” yet for BN as Anwar literally dances around the court returning each smash with his superb court craft. Not even Datuk Lee Chong Wei standing for the ruling coalition could perhaps up BN’s game.
But MCA has thrown its hat into the ring, all too eager perhaps, to curry favour in the face of its upcoming EGM to decide if it will go back on its “principled” back-down from government posts and ask for the seats supposedly still due to them.
It is no secret that Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein is just warming the seat of the transport ministry in the event of an MCA about-turn.
Perhaps thinking that a victory over or at least a good brawl with Anwar in the famous satay town will score brownie points for the government posts the party is expected to be asking for.
But as brilliant as Kajang may have been for PKR to go one up on BN, it also confused its Pakatan allies as well, despite their last-minute closing of ranks.
Some insiders are already warning of a possible strain on relations from such an arbitrary move that emanates from one party but affects the pact as a whole.
