A new political scenario will emerge in Malaysia if the UMNO and PAS members in the Kuala Kangsar by-election on June 18 can rise above petty party politics and vote as patriotic Malaysian voters in support of the AMANAH candidate, Professor Ahmad Termizi to save Malaysia from widespread corruption and rank injustices in the country.

Although the Kuala Kangsar by-election is a four-cornered contest, the real battle is between the UMNO/Barisan Nasional and the AMANAH/Pakatan Harapan candidates.

It is true that the PAS candidate had achieved the best results in the Kuala Kangsar parliamentary constituency since Merdeka in 1957 in the 13th General Election three years ago – losing by only 1,082 votes.

In the 13th GE, PAS secured 13,136 votes against UMNO’s 14,218 votes, with PAS securing 46.6% of the votes cast.

But the 13,136 votes won by the PAS candidate in 2013 were not just PAS votes, but votes for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) comprising DAP, PKR and PAS.

Now, as Pakatan Rakyat is no more because of the refusal of the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang to honour the PR Common Policy Framework and be a PR team-player, it is impossible for the PAS candidate to poll more votes than the 13,136 votes three years ago.

In fact, PAS is likely to lose more than five thousand votes as compared to the 2013 General Election result, bearing in mind that PAS won 9,277 votes in the 2008 GE and 5,748 votes in the 2004 General Election.

Only the AMANAH/PH candidate can defeat the juggernaut election machinery of UMNO/BN in the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections, although the Kuala Kangsar by-election will be an even more uphill and difficult battle than the Sungai Besar by-election.

The key to AMANAH/Pakatan Harapan victory lies on whether UMNO and PAS members in the Kuala Kangsar by-election on June 18 can rise above petty party politics and vote as patriotic Malaysian voters to save Malaysia from widespread corruption and rank injustices in the country.

This is not an impossible development, as it has already happened as far as the MCA, Gerakan and MIC members in the 2013 General Election.

MCA has over a million card-carrying MCA members, but only some 30 per cent of the one-million strong MCA membership voted for MCA candidates whin the 13GE while 70 per cent of the MCA membership or some 700,000 members voted for Pakatan Rakyat candidates in support of the national call for political change in Putrajaya.

Malaysian politics is set for a great political change if not only MCA, Gerakan, MIC members, but even UMNO and PAS members, can rise above petty party politics and take a common stand with all patriotic Malaysians to “Save Malaysia” from widespread corruption and rank injustices in the country – rejecting the Najib-Hadi political conspiracy as evident in Najib’s support for Hadi’s hudud private member’s bill in Parliament on May 26.

Malaysia can be saved if the majority of UMNO and PAS members, like majority of MCA, Gerakan and MIC members in the 13th General Election three years ago, could rise above petty party politics and in particular petty Najib-Hadi politics to “Save Malaysia” for a better, more just, progressive and prosperous future for our children and children’s children, regardless of race, religion, region or party politics.

Can the winds of change which started in the 13th General Election by MCA, Gerakan and MIC members, continue to blow strong and hard, even in the Kuala Kangsar by-election on June 18 – this time spearheaded by UMNO and PAS members?

(Speech at the Pakatan Harapan ceramah in the Kuala Kangsar by-election in Jerlun new village on Tuesday, June 7, 2016 at 9 pm)