Final lap in Permatang Pauh

Permatang Pauh enters the final lap Beh Lih Yi Aug 22, 2008 - Malaysiakini Anwar Ibrahim has been scouring Permatang Pauh since nomination day (last Saturday) with a team of newly-hired bodyguards - bearing strong resemblance to elite police officers, or UTK. The PKR candidate travels in a convoy with bodyguards - all clad in smart black uniform and sunglasses - who follow him, his wife or daughters with equal attention. Anwar looks set to be the prime minister, said some people. While that ambitious plan remains uncertain - sentiments on the ground clearly indicate that he is on his way back to Parliament to represent the semi-urban seat after a 10 year exodus. With the first-half of the 10-day campaign over, Anwar seems to be ahead of his main rival Barisan Nasional candidate Arif Shah Omar Shah and third candidate, Hanafi Hamat of PAS’ splinter party Akim. The past six days saw the contrast between Arif Shah's ‘service-oriented elected representative' and Anwar's ‘future premier' sound-bites. BN - especially Arif Shah himself who is the two-term Seberang Jaya state assemblyperson - has on the campaign trail asked voters to reject the Kuala Lumpur-based Anwar as his ability to serve the locality once elected was suspect. Leveraging on his ability to speak Mandarin and the local dialect Hokkien, the BN candidate has concentrated his campaigning - making his walkabout and house-to-house calls - in Chinese areas. The affable BN politician relies less on ceramah unlike his opponent, and he uses Sun Tzu's Art of War to explain why - "one should not use the same tactic of which his enemy is good at." Chinese, Indian votes Ong Lian Hong, a 53-year-old hawker from Seberang Jaya was impressed by Arif Shah's personal touch and his ability to help solve problems of the average voter. "He is a friendly politician and he has been consistently paying attention to the problems affecting us such as ventilation issues in this hawker centre," he said. Winning substantial Chinese votes, totaling at 24.5 percent and the six percent Indian votes in this constituency of 58,459 electorates remains an uphill task for BN. The two communities are partial to PKR, which was the case in the previous election in March - won by party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the present candidate’s wife. The spirit of March’s political tsunami is widely felt, judging by the loud applause and the shouts of ‘makkal sakti' (people's power) from Chinese and Indian audiences at Anwar's ceramah, striking contrast to the more lukewarm response from Malay crowds at times. BN’s ability to win the Chinese might be compromised by the rather muted efforts of both Chinese parties in the coalition so far. MCA president Ong Ka Ting is expected here for the first time to campaign, while Gerakan - the party that ran Penang for almost 38 years - has its acting president tangled up in a midweek debate with present state Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng. On top of this, Gerakan’s grassroots have been asking for the party’s pull-out from the coalition in response to Umno’s leadership, and stalwart Dr Toh Kin Woon has resigned after meeting Anwar. At the same time, there is potential backlash from non-Malay voters over BN’s incessant harping on Anwar’s call for the abolition of the New Economic Policy, the affirmative action policy championed by BN and bumiputera inclined. As for the Indian community, hundreds of the influential Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) supporters from across the country have pledged to campaign for Anwar this weekend, giving the PKR candidate an extra boost. A significant number of Anwar's local based election workers are Indians, a barometer of the Pakatan leader’s support from the community. ...more http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/88365