Thesun 2009-10-09 Page04 Winning More Important Najib

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theSun

| FRIDAY OCTOBER 9 2009

news without borders In Taman Sg Ujong, it’s bread-and-butter issues that matter by Hemananthani Sivanandam [email protected]

PORT DICKSON: The trees in Taman Sungai Ujong in Ladang Sua Betong, about 20km from here, are strung with green-and-white PAS flags that belie the sentiment of the residents. Some 20 families who reside in the oil palm estate are staunch BN supporters. To them, issues such as the deaths of suspected car thief A. Kugan and political secretary Teoh Beng Hock or the controversial cowhead protest take a back seat; they are more concerned with breadand-butter issues.

briefs Postal voting goes on smoothly PORT DICKSON: Postal voting went on smoothly at the Army Basic Training Centre (Pusasda) and at the Port Dickson district police headquarters yesterday. Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said polling started at 8am and went on smoothly, witnessed by representatives of Barisan Nasional and PAS. Some 2,000 soldiers are expected to cast their votes at Pusada. Wan Ahmad said polling stopped at 5pm and will continue today. There are 4,604 postal voters in Bagan Pinang, of whom 4,571 are soldiers, 31 policemen and two voters who are overseas.

PAS says its workers attacked PORT DICKSON: PAS said yesterday nine of its by-election campaign workers were attacked. Its Bagan Pinang by-election director, Salahuddin Ayob, said the workers were attacked at three different places, including the command centre in Batu Tiga. “One of them was attacked by a person armed with a Samurai sword at about 3am today (Thursday) in front of the Teluk Kemang police station,” he said. “He was with a group of campaign workers but the others managed to escape.”

T. Poovammah, 48, who has lived on the estate for more than 20 years, said she will only vote for BN. “Who else can help me and my family? My children, who are studying, and I get loan facilities from the government, so what’s the point of voting for other parties?” she said. She said although things are difficult, she supports BN because she and her husband want their children to have a better life. Their combined household income is RM800 a month, and almost half during rainy weather. Lorry driver P. Youtheyaaroy, 42, said he has voted for BN for many years, “since my father’s time”. However, although he supported

BN, he does not like MIC. “I never criticise BN but I don’t like MIC, they are too arrogant,” he said. He is a member of the Indian Progressive Front (IPF), which supports BN but is not a component member of the coalition. He said MIC members who visited the estate recently were snobbish and did not go door-to-door to canvass for votes. “Who needs the votes ... they or us? If Gerakan and PAS can come and talk to us personally, why can’t they?” he asked. According to a study by research firm Ilham Centre, 34.8% out of 594 respondents polled said voters will reject BN because it is perceived as

a racist party while 52% said voters would reject Umno because of the perception that it was corrupt. The study, conducted on Sept 15 and 16 on voters in Bagan Pinang, also showed 59.6% of the respondents said the “Isa factor” was more important than current Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Hassan in the by-election. Ironically, the survey also found 64.6% of the respondents felt Mohammad Hassan’s performance is good, while 44.4% felt BN had a good chance of winning the by-election with a bigger majority. About 80% also felt that Tan Sri Isa Samad is the better candidate in the by-election.

Winning more important: Najib PARIS: Winning in the Bagan Pinang state by-election is more important to the Barisan Nasional (BN) than the size of the majority obtained, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said. “There’s no need to talk about winning big or small, as long as (we) win. Winning is the important thing,” the prime minister told Malaysian journalists on Wednesday after his four-day visit to France. He said that to win, the BN must work very hard and carry out an effective campaign to get the message across to the people. He had been informed that the BN campaign was running smoothly and had received encouraging response but the effort must continue till the end. The Bagan Pinang seat fell vacant following the death of Azman Mohammad Noor of the BN on Sept 4. The BN’s Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad is facing Zulkefly Mohamad Omar of PAS in the by-election on Sunday. On the amendment to the Umno constitution, Najib, who is also the Umno president, said it was aimed at promoting transparency and openness and reducing unhealthy practices like money politics in the party elections. The final decision on the proposed amendment would be made at the Umno extraordinary general assembly next week, he said. He said he was open to the proposal as the Umno president and did not want to hide behind the quota system or stringent conditions.

HESUN MOHD NOR/T KAMARIDUAN

“I feel it’s important that Umno members have absolute right in the election of high posts, which is the spirit behind the constitutional amendments,” he said. On Makkal Sakti, Najib said he had explained to MIC that the support of the Indian community for the BN was not confined to parties within the BN and there were parties outside the BN like the IPF, which supported the coalition. “These parties are also interested in supporting the BN so why don’t we accept them even though they are not BN members?”

y meet army o) and Zulkefl Isa (top phot stal voting po of t the star personnel at yesterday.

Can Isa pull in the Indian and Chinese votes? Analysis by Tim Leonard [email protected]

CAMPAIGNING for the Bagan Pinang state by-election is in its final stretch. With Umno fairly certain of capturing the Malay votes in the constituency of 13,664 voters, the outcome of the by-election may hinge on the non-Malay voters. Malays make up 8,577 or 62.8 % of the voters, Indians 2,834 (20.7%), Chinese 1,498 (10.9%) and others 755 (5.5%). Based on the election statistics, some 80% of the Indian voters and 65% of the Chinese voters backed the Opposition in the last general election, but less than 15% of the Malay votes went the same way. So is the diminutive 59year-old Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad, popularly called “Doraemon”, ready to win the hearts and minds of those who have lost faith in BN? BN has strong hopes that the former Negri Sembilan mentri besar, who is trying to make a political comeback, can deliver the non-Malay votes and seal a victory for the ruling coalition

after a string of defeats in previous by-elections. In fact, the MIC and MCA election machineries are working round the clock to convince the non-BN supporters and fence-sitters Isa is the man they should vote for, and the message appears to be getting through. theSun spoke to several non-Malay voters to hear what they felt about supporting Isa and BN, and the results show a swing in support for the Umno politician. “Isa is clearly a leader who relates to all races,” said C.L Wong, a voter from Bagan Pinang. “We have known him for a long time, since he was the mentri besar. We feel very connected to him.” S. Perumal, another registered voter, said: “Wherever he goes, he engages the Indians and the Chinese, so much so that people feel connected and attracted to what he has to say.” Come Sunday night, Isa will know if these expressions of support convert into muchneeded votes for the BN. Isa’s candidacy has not

been without controversy. His tainted background – he was stripped of his Umno vicepresidency after being found guilty of money politics by the Umno disciplinary board in 2005 – meant that there was some pressure on Umno to pick another candidate. Despite this, many local folk have no problems forgetting his past. “Isa was found guilty within Umno. It’s not that he was charged in court and found guilty,” said S. Anbalagan. “So what? In fact, there are other leaders who have many skeletons in the closet and have done worse things.” PAS and its Pakatan Rakyat partners face an uphill task in getting their message about corruption and bad governance across to the voters in a by-election campaign devoid of any real issues. So they have taken to playing up sensitive issues and erecting billboards with pictures of Teoh Beng Hock and A. Kugan, to stir the emotions of the voters. But so far, despite good turnouts at the nightly ceramahs, the sentiment on the ground is leaning towards Isa.