Politics

Malaysia General Election 13

General Election


CM Lim Guan Eng Putting His Ballot Paper Into Box (Source: JohnShen Lee)
USPA NEWS - Ruling coalition Barisan Nasional has little reason to gloat over its win in the May 5 general election.
Violence, phantom voters and the unreliable indelible ink were only part of the shenanigans BN resorted to in its bid to secure Putrajaya. Victory however was far from sweet for BN; not only did
Despite BN´s extensive propaganda, good sense thankfully prompted voters to reject candidates such as Malay extremist party Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali who was knocked out by PAS´ Nik Abdul Nik Aziz in Pasir Mas, Kelantan. In the 2008 general election, Ibrahim won the seat under the PAS ticket. He later contested as an independent candidate for the Pasir Mas parliamentary seat. Also shown the door was Perkasa vice-president Zulkifli Noordin, who riled up the Hindus with his insensitive remarks about the religion. Shah Alam incumbent MP Khalid Samad beat Zulkifli with a slight increase in majority. He polled 48,835 votes to Noordin´s 38,084. Ibrahim despite receving full backing from former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad endorsing him
As for Zulkifli, despite being racist to the core, he was BN´s choice for the Shah Alam parliamentary seat; maybe it was poetic justice that brought an end to Zulkifli´s active stint in politics, for shortly before he was named as the BN candidate, Zulkifli invited trouble by belittling the Hindu deities.
In the 2008 general election, Zulkifli contested for the Kulim-Bandar Bahru parliamentary seat under the Pakatan Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) ticket. Zulkifli´s announcement as the BN candidate prompted his rival Khalid to deduce that the decision to move from Kulim-Bandar Baharu to Shah Alam showed that Zulkifli had no confidence in retaining the seat.Also making an unceremonious exit were several BN big-wigs.
Raja Nong Chik lost Lembah Pantai by 1,847 votes to incumbent MP Nurul Izzah Anwar. Mohd Puad lost by a mere 1,732 to PKR´s Mohd Idris Jusi in Batu Pahat, Johor. During his tenure as deputy education minister, Mohd Puad was busy propagating moves to denounce the existence of the LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders) communities, inciting schoools to do the same. Unlike Mohd Puad, former deputy education minister Saifuddin Abdullah who lost by a mere 1,070 votes to PAS´s Nasrudin Hassan never feared criticising Umno´s excesses or “˜calling a spade a spade´ ““ but then rumours have it that Saifuddin was a victim of internal sabotage due to his no-nonsense stance.
As for A Kohilan Pillay, revelation by DAP election strategist Ong Kia
Kian Ming that the former deputy foreign minister held a fake degree was enough to put the voters off.
Kohilan who contested for the Puchong parliamentary seat had listed in his biodata that he obtained a Masters degree in Commercial and Industrial Economy from the Western Pacific University in the US, which according to Ong was a degree mill and had been closed down by the authorities some time back.
Kohilan, the Selangor Gerakan chief, lost to DAP´s Gobind Singh Deo by a vast vote margin of 32,802. Putrajaya might have escaped the clutches of opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat but the fact remains that unlike BN, the opposition pact has succeeded in winning the rakyat´s trust, especially for states like Penang and Selangor which try as hard.
Liability for this article lies with the author, who also holds the copyright. Editorial content from USPA may be quoted on other websites as long as the quote comprises no more than 5% of the entire text, is marked as such and the source is named (via hyperlink).