by Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
November 07, 2010

We need to distinguish between a crass propagandist and a sober politician. Ahmad Maslan fits into the former category it seems.

Ahmad Maslan, the Umno information chief cited 4 reasons for the victory in Galas. The acceptance by the people, of the national leadership of Najib and Muhyidin. The influence of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Mustapha Mohamad, the acceptance of the people of the various initiatives thought of by our great leader which will be implemented by the ruling government and so on. He was referring to such initiatives like 1 Malaysia, ETP and so forth. Finally, and here is the earth shattering observation- people are fed up of the politics of the opposition to the ruling BN. It’s a triumph of moderation over extremism. One writer puts as the alarm bell for the 13th GE.

For whom does the bells toll?

People in Gua Musang and Galas in particular must be the most intelligent people in Malaysia. There must be something in the pristine air and the physical terrain of the area. Or maybe something in the diet of Gua Musangians. The nasi kerabu and berlauk at Restoren Kak Zah or the stalls near Fully Inn?

They understood the concept of 1 Malaysia when the same concept baffled Tun Mahathir and misunderstood by other Malaysians. The people eating at Restoren Kak Zah in Bandar Lama Gua Musang talking politics and cock understand and embrace the various initiatives by the national government. The people in Sungai Terah and Batu Papan are waiting for their ETP, GTP and whatever P’s we can think of.

Gua Musang should be made the administrative capital of Kelantan then or perhaps be made a federal territory and developed into the east coast Putrajaya. There is so much good talent here.

In Galas, the people are roughly divided between Pas and Umno. The Umno candidate secured some 54 per cent of the vote while Pas commanded the balance. I can’t read this as a monumental shift in preference. Pas lost 265 votes from what they got through the late Che Hashim. Umno gained 1571. Umno was able to capitalise on the larger turnout of voters.

In order to wipe out the 646 vote deficit, Umno had to effectively secure 1800 votes. I had predicted Umno to win by around 2300 to 2500 votes. My detractors were jubilant I was wrong here but curiously silent on my prediction that Umno will win. The effective 1800 vote is close enough to 2300. Indeed Umno could have garnered more than that, had the meddling by outsiders and internal sabotaging were minimised.

So to come back to what Ahmad Maslan said. I see no evidence of the validity in these assertions. What was at work in Galas last week was pure retail politics not wholesale politics. When Muhyidin came the first time around, he was astonished at the muted and subdued air about the election.

Retail politics involve the articulation and championing of purely local issues. This is opposite to wholesale politics where, national issues not directly related to local situations are aired. Perhaps Ahmad Maslan should direct his mind to these concepts.

The Chinese in Desa Pulai were not more motivated by people distributing leaflets on the circumstances leading to the death of Teoh Beng Hock. I suspect they were remotely interested in the issue surrounding the shooting of the late Amirul in Shah Alam. Of course, these are indeed important issues to those immediately concerned but hardly in resonance with people in Galas. The loss of loved ones is not light matter.

Chinese in Desa Pulai were more interested in the security of their land tenure. They were more concerned about the affairs and future of their Chinese school. The Chinese and homeless people in Gua Musang are more interested in getting housing faculties. The fence sitters in Gua Musang are more interested in seeing Kesedar managed more efficiently and corruption weeded out.

If PAS and the other opposition parties to Umno rule had been more vigilant and had paid keener attention to local issues, they could have made a big impact. Like raising the issues on the management and abuses of Kesedar. But they didn’t. Gua Musangians are interested in this issue.

People in Gua Musang were more amused and probably entertained by the sight of Theresa Kok and her coworkers carrying DAP flags and banners around Bandar Lama Gua Musang.

My point is this. If we can and are eager to dismiss these attempts to foist national issues into ones of concern to local voters as useless irrelevance, the same ruling should be applied to the big idea, that this win in Galas is an endorsement of national leadership. No such thing.

This Galas by election is won on the influence of Tengku Razaleigh simpliciter and we are thankful he is an Umno man. The majority of Umno members in Gua Musang understood this and gave their all out.

The people in Gua Musang in general understood the strategic advantage of giving a win to Umno this time. Gua Musang is the only election area in Kelantan to have 100 per cent Umno/BN representation. PAS may grumble for a few days, but in the end sobriety will take over. Only permanent interests matter. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd.Ariff Sabri Hj. Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).