Since a few weeks ago all eyes have been on Kuala Terengganu. Indeed the by-election had attracted the attention of all Malaysians. In the weeks leading up to the polling day, all the big guns in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) rained onto Kuala Terengganu, including the top 2 fellows. All sorts of inducements were offered to the people of Kuala Terengganu, most probably from the taxpayers money, yet in the end PAS won the seat. They did not win marginally—they won with a majority of 2,631 votes. So the new MP for Kuala Terengganu is Mohd Abdul Wahid Endut.
Despite going all out to capture the seat, BN ends up with yet another failure. They are much stronger financially; they also control a substantial portion of the mass media encompassing the major newspapers, TV and radio stations. Yet the Kuala Terengganu folks chose the opposition candidate. To me that speaks volume!
But this is what Najib has to say about the outcome of the by-election:
"Barisan Nasional’s loss in the by-election is only a setback and has no impact on the national political landscape...
The Barisan number two said the coalition would not be disheartened and would embark immediately on measures to win back the confidence of the people."
He's got to be kidding me! No impact? I'm sure he himself can't believe what he's saying. The second line above is fast becoming a standard comment since the political tsunami in March last year. Whatever "immediate measures" taken by the BN since March last year, they did not seem to be working to "win back the confidence of the people", and their controlling stake in the Dewan Rakyat is gradually growing slimmer by each by-election. If the opposition can repeat the feat another 30 times, BN will become the opposition party. It is not impossible, but I think not probable. However, at the rate we're going right now, it does seem like the BN will not survive the next General Election.
I read with interest about the "RAHMAN" prophecy a while ago. It's been suggested that the names of the Malaysian Prime Ministers shall start with those letters found in RAHMAN, and in that order. Thus Najib is predicted to become the next Prime Minister, i.e. the "N" in RAHMAN. If indeed that is true, then all those people in RAHMAN are from the ruling BN. And then one wonders who comes next. Could it be that since the "N" is the last letter in RAHMAN, it is also the last Prime Minister from BN? Some people might already be grumbling right now—they might be frustrated that the name of the first Prime Minister only had RAHMAN in it. If they could only turn back the clock to the time when RAHMAN was born, perhaps they would lengthen the name RAHMAN with the letters "H" and "K". Then they won't have to worry about the slimmer majority in Dewan Rakyat.
1 comment:
How amusing! When I posted the above article last night, I had written something about the BN candidate. And then I decided it wasn't a good idea, and deleted that portion of my post. However, when I gave the winner of the by-election, I forgot to erase the name of the BN candidate and reported him as the winner instead! I hope I didn't confuse my readers. I have since edited the post.
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