The by-election campaign in Sungai Limau, Kedah is in the final stage now as polling has been fixed for Monday, Nov 4. This PAS seat has been held by PAS for the past five terms but this time around PAS has found the battle tough going due to the abundance of goodies being dished out to the voters by the BN government.
The population demography from the recent 13th general election shows that Sungai Limau has 93% Malay voters, 6.7% Chinese voters, 0.1% Indians and 0.1% Others.
The total number of registered voters for the by-election is 27,222. In the 13th general election, the voter turnout was 24,349 and PAS won with a majority of 2,774.
This time the PAS candidate, Mohd Azam Abdul Samat, aged 37, just like his predecessor the late Azizan Abdul Razak, is an ustaz too and he will be going up against Dr Ahmad Sohaimi Lazim from Umno, aged 52.
However, this is a rural seat and PAS cannot leverage on the implementation of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) to gain votes as the GST will have little impact on the self-sufficient voters.
Although Sungai Limau does not affect the status quo in Kedah, it is an important barometer to gauge the Malay support for PAS. If PAS loses this seat, will it indicate eroding Malay support for PAS?
This columnist’s analyst friend had opined that if PAS loses Sungai Limau, then there will be more voices urging PAS to quit Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has also mentioned that PAS should merge with Umno and yet BN is doling out a massive amount of goodies in order to mercilessly wipe-out PAS from Sungai Limau.
This shows that it would be unwise for PAS to join Umno as PAS will only be swallowed up and become a non-entity.
“Umno’s intention to get PAS to merge is so that Umno can ‘sapu’ PAS’ one million supporters besides putting up a farcical show of Malay and Muslim unity,” said PAS Shah Alam MP, Khalid Samad.
Buy-election
Back to the Sungai Limau by-election. Initial surveys revealed that the Chinese voters will vote for PAS while the Malays seem inclined towards BN.
Khalid also remarked that “BN is always doing a buy-election using the rakyat’s money to woo the rakyat.”
The Election Commission (EC) as usual is turning a blind eye towards all these BN shenanigans happening in Sungai Limau which include BN handing out hampers in the Sungai Dedap voting stream containing expired tins of sweetened creamer, preventing PAS’ women from conducting house-to-house visits, having BN ceramahs next to PAS and spreading text messages accusing Mahfuz Omar (PAS Pokok Sena MP) of spreading rumours that the BN candidate has undergone mental treatment.
It begs the question of who is really having mental illness in this campaign.
These rough and unethical tactics are of course nothing new to BN.
The whole weight of the BN machinery is pitted against PAS. In by-elections, PAS has always find it more difficult to win compared to the general election because in by-elections the whole of BN’s might is focused in a particular area.
Even PAS’ visit to Jamil Khir Baharom’s (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department) father who had suffered a stroke three years ago was made fun of by a columnist in a local English daily dated Oct 28, 2013.
If Umno people really loved PAS, why are they attacking PAS with such great intensity? Moreover it has always been PAS’ practice to visit the sick and Jamil Khir’s father happens to be a PAS member – this fact was conveniently omitted by that daily. Therefore PAS is merely visiting one of their members who is unwell.
With the PAS muktamar coming up on Nov 22 to 24, the result of Sungai Limau will have a huge bearing on the party’s direction and roadmap. If PAS loses, then the motion for PAS to leave Pakatan will surely surface at the muktamar.
BN’s strategy to keep the citizens poor and ignorant so that they will always need to depend on BN for handouts and financial assistance is a successful one.
It will therefore not be surprising if PAS were to lose this seat. In fact they have already lost it even before the campaign started and now they are trying to claw their way back to victory.
Campaigners from both sides of the political divide will be converging in Sungai Limau now and one can expect a very close fight. However it is disappointing to note that the EC has not bothered to speak out against the blatant gift-giving especially the financial goodies being handed out daily.
It is certainly an uphill battle for PAS and a closely-fought one. Perhaps BN will win by a slim margin.
This is due to PAS being too overwhelmed by the buyout of the voters. BN leaders always say that they are giving out goodies not because of the by-election but because they care for the rakyat but everyone who can think can surely see through this lame excuse.
However, will the voters wise-up to BN’s deception or be deceived by BN’s expired sweeteners?
Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.
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