Mansor, 59, Aminah Abdullah, 56, Nai Khan Ari, 41, and Kamarul Ramizu Idris, 42,
Penanti is a must-win seat for the party's morale because even with a victory gain will not change the equation in the state legislative assembly.
BN is staying out of the by-election, calling it an abuse of the electoral process and a political ploy. PKR have forced two other by-elections previously- the first was when Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail vacated her Permatang Pauh seat to enable her husband, Anwar, to return to Parliament.
Then came the Bukit Selambau by-election where PKR representative and Kedah state exco member V. Arumugam abandoned his seat amid allegations of bigamy.
The Penanti by-election was precipitated by the resignation of former Penang deputy chief minister I Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin following a graft probe. He was later cleared by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
While PKR may supposedly be guaranteed of its `base support`, party insiders are keen to see which way some 2,000 fence-sitters will go.
Penanti voters comprise of 72.6 % Malays, 24.2 % Chinese, 2.4 % Indians and 0.7 % others.
A section of the crowd attending a ceramah in Kampung Guar Jering on Wednesday night
(NST, 27.5.09).
Addressing a large and mostly Muslim audience at a football field in Guar Jering on Wednesday night, Pas spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat repeated his famous "reward from God" campaign line: "I have said this before in Kelantan, vote and you will get pahala (rewards)," declared the revered Tok Guru.
Leaflets were distributed at the ceramah bearing messages from Nik Aziz, Hadi and Penang Pas chief Saleh Man directing Penanti Pas members to come out full force to support PKR candidate Dr Mansor Othman.
Earlier there were threats from some to boycott the by-election.
Local Pas leaders are said to be unhappy with the "forced" by-election, and had even suggested that Pas should field its own candidate.
Another storm stirring is the independent candidate Aminah Abdullah's allegations that PKR had offered inducements for her either to withdraw from the by-election or rejoin the party if she won. The so called `Kak Min` CD scandal is a growing concern for Pakatan leaders.
She has been labelled as a woman of loose character and given names like "Minah Ronggeng" (cabaret woman) in the nightly ceramah that are held in Penanti.
PKR has denied the claims, which the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating.
The question that begs to be answered is why is Pakatan bashing Aminah for the dirty deeds committed by its own leaders?
After all, PKR supreme council member Cheah Kah Peng and state executive council member Law Choo Kiang's special assistant Lim Eng Nam had admitted that they indeed did meet Aminah.
Both have admitted that the conversation took place at Aminah's house on May 13.
However, they remained evasive when asked about the allegations against them.
PKR leaders may want to `shut up` her claims, opting not to respond to them and letting their lawyers deal with the matter, but internal squabbles turning into public spats could be damaging to PKR.
The young party, plagued by a host of leadership problems at various levels, cannot afford to look "small" in the eyes of its allies Pas and DAP in the Pakatan.
Aminah Abdullah has exposed the kind of intense backstabbing and power struggle that is going on in Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and in the Penang state administration.
But more importantly, she has laid bare the hypocrisy of Pakatan leaders, in the manner they are dealing with the whole affair.
Instead of living up to their competency, accountability and transparency motto, they have resorted to scathing attacks on their former colleague.
It is also interesting to note the deafening silence from Level 28 of Komtar on this scandalous affair which has implicated a state exco member.
After all, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was among the ones to call for Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam after the latter was barred from contesting the Umno elections, to take responsibility for the actions of his agent who was cited for money politics and to resign as Malacca Chief Minister.
It was a similar scenario. So it now remains to be seen if Lim would initiate any action against his own exco member for the action of the latter's special assistant.
Its clear PKR is just a noisy party that is chasing clouds in the air only? How much more have we to buy into their `holier-than thou` attitude ? We have wasted too much time in damaging our country`s economic and political stability.
No comments:
Post a Comment