Anwar celebrates with his wife - Star pixIT'S official - Anwar Ibrahim has won the Permatang Pauh by-election with a handsome 15,671 vote majority. He polled 31,195 votes against Barisan Nasional's 15,524 votes. The third contender from Akim managed only 92 votes. In the March general election, Wan Azizah obtained a 13,388 majority. Azizah garnered 30,338 against Firdaus Ismail's 16,950 votes then.
Anwar's win was not unexpected but the strong margin is surely a moral victory for him. The results would be a watershed because it means the return of Anwar to Parliament. It is history in the making tonight. For the BN, especially Umno, it would have to ask itself why the attempts to win the Malay votes failed. Clearly, its decision to reinforce its image as the Malay protector did not win the votes it needed badly in this predominantly Malay constituency. Anwar's victory, however, does not affect the power equation but as the "comeback kid" in Parliament, his presence alone would generate more excitement. The fight between the BN and PR has now become even more intense.
24 comments:
Dato, There you have it! The people have spoken AGAIN. The people do not want UMNO / BN. And the voices are coming from Malays, Chinese and Indians. UMNO stands for everything that is bad. Corruption, suppression of freedom and expression, abuses of government instruments like the police, judicial, incitement of racial and religious hatred and so forth. So where are the likes of MCA, MIC, Gerakan, and the BN component parties in Sabah and Sarawak, all still so DEAF and BLIND? Who do these parties represent? Can you hear us the Rakyat? MCA, I think you better het your arse out of BN before you become totally irrelevant like Gerakan and MIC. And the Sabahan and Sarawakian rakyat should have the courage to demand your politicians there to reform, and get out of BN, and stop UMNO from plundering the East Malaysian wealth. Dato, time for you to wake up the MCA fellas.
The answer to your question is obvious.
BN failed all Malaysians. It would appear BN learnt nothing from March 8.
We have had enough of divide and rule. Enough of divisive racist and religious talks.
Basically, the people of Permatang Pauh on behalf of all Malaysians are saying to BN - enough of you goons.
Time for change!!
Datuk Wong, permit me to copy & paste something I posted in my blog.
Final EC tally :
Anwar Ibrahim - 31,195
Arif Shah - 15,524
Hanafi Hamat - 92
Win majority - 15,671
Congratulations Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim!
(Just a small reminder. You're allowed to celebrate as you should for overcoming such odds but please don't forget you did so on the back of the rakyat's trust. Celebrate a little then get down to work and deliver to the rakyat what you promised. We are depending on you.)
Dear Datuk,
Why not you be in the advisory board of PM and advice him of the whats going on in the ground. Pak Lah doesn't care at all. I cant believe it. UMNO is leading the BN to destruction. What nonsense strategy? My kids can advice them better. Time for MCA, MIC & Gerakan to abandon the ship. You cant do the same politics as before. Control media, tell the media what to print and what not to print and what to appear in first page. This is insulting the intelligence of malaysians public. Slap in the face of BN. Hope they wake up. Or else they have to wind up BN. May God Bless Malaysia.
Now it would be exciting to see if 16 Sep 08 would come through!
Another rare commentary that states the facts first and then offers an unbiased as well as objective of the implications of the event.
Vey, very rare!
It would have been good if you could have opined that if Pakatan Rakyat can play the role of a strong check and balance, Pakatan Rakyat needs the support of more people to create a viable 2 party system in Malaysia.
After this landslide victory, what if BN keeps DSAI out of Parliament by foul means? Such as by using the new DNA Bill that they seem to be desperately rushing through before the week is over?
As a Christian and a journalist with a conscience, will you speak out clearly and loudly against any injustice and abuse of power? Will you have the courage to stand up for what is right? We fervently hope you can rise to the occasion and do right by our country.
Thank you,
A Malaysian
The winning majority works out to be about 68% of the total votes. This is also pretty close to the recent poll by Merdeka Centre on the sodomy allegation where 60% of those polled did not believe it at all.
What went wrong ? I think one of it would definitely be the Saifu's swearing on eve of the nomination day. Only a bunch of idiots would have drafted that swearing text and brought "description of the male organ inserting to his backside" so close to the holy Quran. Amazing idiots indeed. Don't they know how to respect the religion and the holy book?
Thanks goodness hopefully we will not have this bunch of idiots to run Malaysia for too long.
Regards
Niuku
“Victory Cries” After Permatang Pauh By-Election.
“Laungan-Laungan Kemenangan” Selepas Pilihanraya Kecil di Permatang Pauh.
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“Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!”
“Hail! Man of Honour” walks again in the Corridors of Power
Posted at http://patek1472.wordpress.com
Can someone write an op-ed in the Star on the winners and losers in this landmark by-election ? That would give readers a sense of what is going on in this country.
Of course if Anwar Ibrahim is described as the loser, we have to wonder which by election your paper has been covering.
Well, now Anwar can finally come face to face with the big boys.
No more hiding behind his media.
So whom will get stripped off in parliament? Both sides?
The Parliament will be tougher for Anwar. No more rhetoric. No more drama.
Will be interesting indeed.
MM
The victory just says one thing...that MALAYSIANS OF ALL RACES HAD ENOUGH, of BN with its "divide and rule" policy, and full of corruption, misuse of power especially using the PDRM to initmidate the rakyat, even during the PKR ceramahs..the PDRM Heli was hovering over the sights and flashing those powerful spot lights.
And TV3 with their one sided manipulative news, so much so even children was not safe to watch their 8pm NEWs, daily there was mentioned of liwat, even my son was asking what is liwat, ..why now everywhere is liwat.......so much vulgarism on TV3, and yet...UMNO did this......
UMNO and BN will never learn the lesson, and where is Khairy now...he said UMNO YOUTH will bury ANWAR>..perhaps he should not open his mouth again.
Datuk,
Is it time to reflect on the bias media reporting that is going on for the second time. The Malaysian media , both print and TV still did not want to own up to their mistake after GE12. The people on the field was correctly gauging the ground and almost all media was potraying a strong UMNO campaign. Journalism ethic is compromised again.
Bravo DSAI!!!
Carry our hope to Putrajaya!
BN must go down!
Enough is Enough!
Dear Chun Wai
Sad. Very sad. Achy-breaky heart.
But the people have spoken.
God bless Permatang Pauh.
God bless us all.
Kudos BN for a free and fair elections.
Politics is not so much a matter of holding good cards, but playing a poor hand well.
Dato,
Another lesson that came out of this PP by-election is the total rejection of news coverage from the mainstream media. Bloggers made this election so much more exciting with their excellent coverage. In particular, there was this blogger, tukar tiub, who set up his website recently-he managed to get 100,00 hits in a matter of few days.
I sincerely hope you with guide The Star into giving the news that Malaysians want and crave for...
What a gentleman you are, Datuk Wong. Not even a simple 'syabas' or 'congratulations' for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
.... or is it simply arrogance?
Dato, if you have any influence at all, use it on MCA and tell them to wake up. As it is now MCA already considered as partial total loss.
Is MCA still relevant? As you all know the cantonese pronouciation for MCA is 'MA WAH' which means Malaysian Chinese. I call them 'MAI WAH'which means selling off the chinese. Dato, let see whether you have the guts to let this out.
Hey Wong
Was trying to follow the election progress thru your Star last nite.Was hopeless and now with your commentary here I can understand why mediocrity has become its mantle.
I wonder if the results had been the other way around what would you have written ... hmmm!
Dear Wong,
You asked, "For BN, especially UMNO, why the attempts to win the malay votes failed?"
The answer is simple. Increasingly, the rakyat including the malays now viewed BN, especially UMNO as a AC party. No. AC does not mean Alternating Current but ARROGANT & CORRUPT party.
If BN and especially UMNO does not change and reform itself, it will slowly fade away. That is a certainty.
Not a single positive comment to re-inforce what you have said!
Hi
First of all, I wish to congratulate anwar for winning with such a majority despite the sodomy charge. The message is clear. UMNO is losing their popularity and majority does not believe in the sodomy case. It won't be long for them to be completely rejected by the Raykat if UMNO continues to operate on "auto pilot" mode.
While this win will not affect the power balance for the time being, UMNO knows that their days are numbered with anwar coming back. They know that they will have to neutralize him as quickly as possible. Sodomy? Corruption? With the enitre government machineries under their control, i believe they can always come out with something.
Look at Bangkok today. Will KL follow its path?
Sdra Dato Chun Wai,
While the fight between BN and PKR will be more intense, as you rightly said, I also believe that the in-fighting within Umno will be just as bruising. Could even be brutal. There's a fair bit of finger pointing already, as you would probably know. Permatang Pauh can trigger new political battles, I think.
PAHIT MANIS
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