Kajang by-election: Will Chew be made to pay for the wrongs of others?
Patrick Sennyah,Fz.com
Campaigning for the Kajang state by-election enters its fifth day today. And the usual poison pen letters, splashing of red paint, party crossovers and numerous police reports have gone into full swing.
Things are expected to move up a notch over the weekend as more party leaders are scheduled to make appearances here.
Till today, I must praise both Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun (BN) and Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKR) for maintaining the highest level of political decorum throughout their campaigns.
Both candidates have been well received by the people and despite the heat and haze, they have maintained a steady pace in reaching out and meeting the constituents.
At every ceramah and public event I attended, I asked the people present whom they thought would eventually win, simply wanting to know where each candidate stood so far.
My guess was correct, the people here seem to warm up to both Chew and Azizah and as it stands, on day five, the scales seem pretty evenly matched.
However, during one of the MCA’s events yesterday, several veteran party members strongly opined that Chew faced an even heavier burden as certain statements made by some leaders did not go down well with the people.
According to the veterans, these statements and events had nothing to do with the Kajang by-election but they feared that the people’s unhappiness over these may be reflected in the electoral outcome.
“You don’t have to go too far… The recent bomoh episode with regards to the missing flight MH370 was also in very bad taste. Although it had nothing to do with the BN, the people will still use it against us.
“Though we don’t know who invited the bomoh, the people will still blame us, saying we did not handle the situation well and things like that,” said one of them.
The veterans claimed that Chew had to work doubly hard compared to Wan Azizah as most of the odds were against her and she had to start from scratch to win over the people.
