The battle for Permatang Pauh will be between the BN's Arif Shah (left) and PKR's Anwar Ibrahim
The Barisan Nasional is fielding Seberang Jaya Assemblyman Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah for Permatang Pauh. Arif Shah speaks Mandarin and Hokkein fluently, a key factor, which Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak must have taken into consideration in the bid to win over the crucial Chinese votes. Arif Shah received his primary and secondary school education in Chinese schools before going to the US to study civil engineering. He also acts as an advisor for Tamil clubs in his constituency, another plus point for him. Arif is known for his constituency work in Seberang Jaya - the state constituency in Permatang Pauh said to have delivered the largest chunk of BN votes. Still, Arif Shah would go into the contest as an underdog. His job is to reduce the opposition majority. His entry into the by-election is already unprecedented in Umno as the party never fields the same person for state and parliamentary constituencies but this is an unprecedented event. Both sides are playing the "underdog" tag in a move to stop any form of complacency in the polls.
12 comments:
You are joking. The man survived by a whisker. Only 533 vote majority in March 08. You think speaking Chinese works with an UMNO mind today? Note that when he got 533 majority, (of which 400 were postal votes), many Chinese and Indians were apprehensive of Anwar by then and voted BN. Majority of the Malays did vote against him and that worsened over the last few months as anger against BN sky rocketed over multifarious issues. Moreover, today the case is very much different. A sane Chinese and a sane Indians is not ready under any circumstance whatsoever to vote for an AMNO man. Telling the Chinese and Indians to leave the country and saying AMNO chose someone who speaks their languages is a tragic irony that shows their buffoonery.
who the hell care he can speak chinese or hokkein ! We chinese at permatang pauh not fool ! no matter who as long as see BN logo I wont vote for him/her !
BN ! lu kiasu ar ! wa kalu kong, wa ng shi xiao lang ! wa wu da chek ! lu BN go to six feet underground !
It's good if you can speak extra languages. But performance.... more important!
My daughter is Indian Chinese mix. She can speak Hakka, Mandarin, Tamil (a little), Bahasa Malaysia & English.
Studies no good, i punish her. Simple as that.
But if whoever wins or get chosen to govern Permatang Pauh doesn't perform as required, we the rakyat are screw...!
We are stuck with them no matter what...!
Yes.... speak all you like !
don't think because he knows chinese or hokkien, then he can win our chinese VOTE...No way! BN has long destroyed non-bumi hopes...see what happen when Khalid proposed 10% for non-bumi & foreigner for entry to UITM? they SLAM him...see...so NO POINT TO VOTE BN! So pematang voters,let VOTE PKR and say NO TO UMNO/BN!
Hi Chun Wai
Bravo Datuk Arif. Go for it. It's good to be the underdog. You don't have much at stake. You are not gunning for PM.
No worries if you sincerely want to serve Permatang Pauh folks.
Your only fear should be people within your party.
But I'm sure Datuk Jalil is magnanimous enough. Known to be sacrificing, selfless and hard-working comrade.
Your rival is now jittery. Problems cropping out at every hole. Bar Council, his AWOL MP, the UITM issues, to name some.
Who knows the missing MP is safely ensconced in UMNO.
Maybe doing an Ezam act.
Suddenly campaigning against his boss. LOL
Can he speak better mandarin than Koh Tzu Koon or better tamil than Samy vellu? If you think Malaysians can be deceived by someone who utters few local words, than I'm sorry for you Mr.Wong.
Malaysians are not the type of Malaysians you used to think!
Suresh
This Arif Shah is going to be mauled by Anwar and i pity him as he was like a sacrificing goat.It is a shame to the BN for not putting other candidate to fight against Anwar.I believe he must be the only chap who can minimise the majority that would be casted in the coming by-election.It is a shame to Pak Lah and regime and the people of Penang are already fed-up with him for stopping the 2nd Penang bridge and the monorail project.Penangites are fed-up with Pak Lah as he does not speak with an honest heart.He has betrayed Penangites and I believe Permatang Pauh people would give Anwar a resounding victory of not less than 13,ooo votes.
let me apologise if i am going to offend anyone but seriously, dont u think that alot of the rakyat around are still very gullible? they just trust watever gossips which comes along.
i still have 50 year old aunties believing that anwar is gay tho.
"Chinese speaking Arif Shah is BN man"
SO WHAT !! , i am also malay speaking, still i am the other race to the BN rian .. now look at those ` stupid nothing to do` Uitm students .. what a pissed off..
So what if Arif speaks Chinese? I speak Malay yet time and time again I've been sidelined as a non bumiputra. Who gives a damn about my Malaysianess?
At the end of the day, UMNO is still UMNO. A corrupted regime who refused to learn does not deserve to win. I don't buy it. He can speak a dozen foreign langauges and still not get my vote!
Yeah, who cares if he speaks Hokkien or Cantones or any other dialect. It does not mean we will accept him. Anwar can't speak any Chinese dialect but we will still vote for him. Afterall, I do speak Bahasa Malaysia, but UMNO discriminate against me. We still remember Najib's racist statements.
I don't give two hoots whether he speaks Chinese or not, he is still UMNO man. Even if you put a dog to run against him, I will vote for the dog.
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