Permatang Pauh – Najib lost, again
Umar Mukhtar
The winner of the by-election was Dr Wan Azizah of PKR after getting 31,000 over votes, beating the BN (UMNO) candidate who got 19,000 over votes by about 11,000 votes. Turnout was only 73% compared to 88% in 2013. 15% reduction translates to about 12,000 voters choosing to stay home for whatever reasons.
PKR’s votes were slashed by about 6,000 votes from the 2013 results probably because of the PAS boycott and general unhappiness about PKR’s candidate and the past neglect of the of constituency. And yet PKR won! We can guess the reason of the decrease in PKR’s votes.
That is not that obvious with UMNO. UMNO’s votes, too, were slashed by about the same 6,000 votes because UMNO supporters who voted in 2013 stayed away. Why did they stay away?
If they had turned up as in 2013, at least BN would have a respectable showing even without any increase in votes. Alas, that’s not to be. At the time when the opposition is so split, UMNO didn’t know what to do except stayed in denial. Golden chance missed!
Now the question is asked, why did UMNO supporters stayed away? Najib’s answer will be total gibberish mixture of lame excuses and blaming people like Dr Mahathir but absolving himself. After all, Jho Low was not involved with 1MDB and GST caused the cost of living to go down by 40%. Tell that to the marines!
Answer: They are not happy with the party’s policies, how the masses are ignored, and the lavish spending of Najib’s family at a time when the Rakyat had to shoulder more taxes. No prize for the correct answer as to who is to blame.
Now that it is evident that the grassroots are unhappy with Najib as PM, he should just resign or he will take his party down with him. If he wants to stay on he has to immediately do the following:
1. Review the GST and cut down the lavish spending like the new jetliner and 1BRIM.
2. Remove idiots from his governments and put the warlords in their proper places.
3. Review the National Education Policy from the perspective of nation building, competitiveness, and personal liberties.
4. Announce new effective measures to curb corruption by appointing a non-partisan Review Board of a newly structured MACC
5. Form a National Unity Ministry and sanction an inter-faith Permanent Council in the ministry.
6. Review all laws so as to be optimum in purpose and enforcement.
7. Embark on a proactive and sustainable economic regime that are people-friendly and growth-oriented.
8. Set term limits for the positions of Prime Minister and Chief Justice.
9. Appoint a National Resources watchdog committee to review and optimise natural resources exploitation and human resources needs, training and minimum wage to minimise foreign labour dependence.
10. Separate his personal leadership quarrels from national policy matters.
If these are too daunting for you Najib, just resign and migrate to Hollywood.
