Three things we learnt from: Permatang Pauh
(MMO) – It was a brief scare in the end, albeit one that PKR cannot ignore the next time it goes up against BN.
Despite late fears of a possible upset, PKR’s Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail prevailed over Barisan Nasional’s Suhaimi Sabudin in the Permatang Pauh by-election yesterday.
She not only won again the federal seat vacated — again — by husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s disqualification, but managed to come within 3,000 votes of his margin of victory in Election 2013 even with the much lower voter turnout of 74 per cent.
But despite the win, PKR’s campaign was far from smooth, wracked at first by a threatened PAS boycott and, later, foundered as locals grew bored of the party’s repeated criticism over the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Here are the three things we learned from the Permatang Pauh by-election:
1. Wake-up call for PKR
After 17 years under PKR and more before that under Anwar, Permatang Pauh was billed as a party stronghold.
And PKR campaigned exactly as though the by-election’s outcome was all but certain.
It declined to put forth an election manifesto for the poll, insisting that the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) manifesto for Penang during Election 2013 sufficed.
While BN arrived with detailed pledges for progress and development, Dr Wan Azizah banked her entire campaign on sympathy for Anwar’s jailing and public unhappiness with the GST.
But it soon became apparent that neither issue resonated with the locals, and while GST was the topic du jour both here and elsewhere across the nation, people longed for something more substantial than just criticising the government.
