We are now at the half-way mark in the campaign for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election.

Will the former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is the main strategist behind the Barisan Nasional by-election, campaigning personally in the by-election and summoning to the electoral battle the old UMNO leaders like former Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hasimmuddin Hussein and the former Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid, the question is whether the by-election would mark Barisan Nasional’s rise from the ashes of its defeat in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018, and prepare for Najib’s political comeback in the 15th General Election by 2023 as the Prime Minister to save him from imprisonment in Sungai Buloh Prison.

I must confess I was quite unsure at first how to present Najib’s kleptocracy and the 1MDB scandal as among the key issues in the by-election, until the UMNO/BN strategists and cybertroopers providentially came to the rescue.

By stupidly focusing on the wholly legitimate and legal reimbursement of RM20 to some 60 Orang Asli youths who came out from the remote Orang Asli kampongs in their motor-bikes to Tanah Rata to support Pakatan Harapan on by-election’s Nomination Day, the Barisan Nasional strategists and cybertroopers had unwittingly focussed the by-election on the issues of clean and honest politics, good governance, the battle against corruption and most important of all, the 1MDB scandal.

Pakatan Harapan must thank the Barisan Nasional strategists and cybertroopers for this help and leg-up in the first few days of the campaign. Read the rest of this entry »