Garlanded to win, Isa, so it seems.
Isa and supporters show the 1 Malaysia sign, a symbol of the new Najib administration.
The Pakatan Rakyat “won” in Bagan Pinang today when Umno named former Negri Sembilan mentri besar Tan Sri Isa Samad as their candidate in the country’s ninth by-election since Election 2008.
It wasn’t hard to see that they have been campaigning for the disgraced but popular party vice-president to stand in his political fortress.
For them, Isa’s victory is a battle won but a war lost in the next general elections, as they seek to show Umno is a party of corrupt politicians and tainted members as reflected in the recent Permatang Pasir vote. Previous in Permatang Pasir UMNO chose a disbarred lawyer.
The final stroke came today when banners supporting Isa and openly threatening a boycott if he wasn’t named appeared mysteriously in the seaside seat.
A puzzled Teluk Kemang Umno hastily brought down the banners as they suspected others, possibly their political rivals, were behind it.
“Let’s just say that Umno members didn’t do it. If they did, they would just express support for Isa but not openly call for a boycott,” a PAS strategist told The Malaysian Insider.
He said the party believed an Isa victory would help Pakatan Rakyat capture the state later as voters in other seats would be disgusted with the win by a man found guilty by his party for money politics.
“PAS takes a long-term view. And we won today when Umno named him,” the strategist said.
The strategist also revealed that PAS party workers might be suffering from polls fatigue in the Bagan Pinang vote as they ran a poor campaign in Permatang Pasir to help Penang PAS chief Salleh Man defeat Rohaizat Othman in the Aug 25 by-election.
“We ran the worst campaign of all time as only a few people worked hard. But Umno lost because they had a worse candidate,” he said, referring to the disbarred lawyer.
He said the combination of factors had made them strategise to get Umno to pick Isa, over whom even party rivals Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah came together in rare agreement to publicly call him “the worst candidate” for the vote.
“Umno wins this round but it will lead to their loss later in the 13th general elections,” he said, noting PAS was glad Umno is not listening to its veteran leaders.
The Bagan Pinang by-election is on Oct 11 and is expected to be a straight fight between Umno and PAS with nomination day on Oct 3.
An Umno divisional leader told The Straits Times that the party could not afford to lose after six consecutive losses in by-elections in the peninsula since last year's general election.
“The party is fragile now,” he said.
It is thus reluctant to take a risk even though the demographics of the seat heavily favour the BN.
Of the 13,600 voters, 4,600 are postal voters from a nearby army camp. Postal votes are a safe vote bank for the BN.
The remaining 9,000 voters are divided into 63 per cent Malays, 21 per cent Indians, 11 per cent Chinese, and the rest classified as others.
Umno won the seat in last year's general election with a majority of 2,333 votes.
Its pledge to reform has suddenly started to ring hollow, say critics.
“Malaysians shook their heads in dismay at Isa's nomination,” said veteran opposition MP Lim Kit Siang.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who strongly opposed the choice of Isa, said he will not be campaigning for the BN.
“Well, he is the party nominee... My personal feelings do not count,” he said.
Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, an MP in Negri Sembilan, said the party has to be proactive in countering the inevitable backlash.
“He has paid the penalty. There must be some rehabilitation,” he said.
He also pointed out that the opposition cannot take the moral high ground because it, too, has tainted leaders.
Isa will be up against Negri Sembilan PAS commissioner Zulkefly Mohamad Omar, 44.
A Parti Keadilan Rakyat divisional leader, Shahruddin Abdul Hamid, 52, plans to contest as an independent.
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