Ijok: The so-called truth will be revealed today
So much had been said about Ijok by-election, which is believed to be the last by-election before the upcoming general election. Today, the people of Ijok will make their wish known. And what is at stake are of paramount importance to both contesting parties BN and PKR.
To BN, the Ijok by-election is not really about do-or-die mission (at least that is what I personally think) as BN, the coalition of various parties in Malaysia which is led by Malay-based UMNO, already have comfortable margin and control in both the State and Federal Government levels. Ijok by-election, in my humble opinion, however is more like a face-saving by-election that must be won at all cost. And to start with, RM36 million just flew out of BN’s coffer even before the nomination day… that’s how much BN was willing to spend for this by-election, hence buy-election as Ijok’s by-election had been popularly referred to in the blogosphere.
From Keadilan point of view, Ijok by-election is a critical test to gauge the popularity of Anwar Ibrahim, the advisor to PKR, who has been leading the PKR campaign in Ijok. And popularity is the word so synonymous with Anwar. He was popular student leader among university student and Baling’s poor people when he led the students to fight for Baling people. He was popular with his meteoric rise in Malaysian politics after being recruited by Mahathir into UMNO despite the well known fact that Anwar was very much inclined to the opposition camp then.
Thanks to Mahathir too, Anwar shot to limelight again when he was sacked in September 1998 after being accused of sodomy and corruption charges, the allegations that he claims until this day as efforts by Mahathir to kill his political career. Anwar’s popularity this time however came with quite heavy prices…. beaten almost to death, black eyes, scores of closed friends sent to prisons under the ever infamous Internal Security Act for siding with Anwar… and so on.. the list is too long to be published here.
Anwar is just a popular guy no matter which way you look at it.. controversial or otherwise. Ijok by-election is the first test of his continued popularity, especially among Malays voters of Ijok.
Of course, there are many other factors that should be the considered by the people of Ijok when they go out and vote today. However, taking just these two factors into consideration, it is interesting to see which party will the people of Ijok vote today. The battle continues and the truth will be revealed today. Stay tuned!
1 Comment
“…RM36 million just flew out of BN’s coffer…” I wish I can believe that. I’m more inclined to believe that the RM36m is OUR hard-earned money that should have been spent fairly, not just for BN (the party) to get votes.
What today will show is how gullible most of us, the ordinary rakyat is. How much conscience most of us have in giving the support and greenlight for corruption and abuse of power. Or maybe most of us have lost the ability to differentiate right from wrong. My bet is, most of us have.