Muhyiddin’s hard truth in Johor

Johor which is an Umno fortress could lose as many as seven seats in the 13th general election.

COMMENT

The other night I watched, on TV3, an interview with Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said the 13th general election is an uphill battle for Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN). I think Muhyiddin this time around speaks with a touch of realism.

Maybe he refuses to be bamboozled with over-optimistic Jasa (Special Affairs Department) reports – I saw some of them especially on Pahang and I was laughing.

Were these reports written while drinking kopi tiam or eating keropok lekor?

Or were they written while sitting on the bed at home? Those suckers at headquarters won’t be able to tell the difference.

Muhyiddin must be thinking about his home state too – Johor.

Ong Kah Ting, former MCA president, is not going to contest. His seat may go to the opposition.

Umno bastion

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein is retreating to Kota Tinggi. That means incumbent Syed Hamid Albar isn’t contesting anymore as he is no longer winnable.

Sembrong seat too is gone. Bakri is another area that’s losable. Dr S Subramaniam (MIC deputy president) can say bye bye to Segamat. Pasir Gudang is another parliamentary seat that looks shaky.

Johor will remain a bastion for Umno, but a few more parliamentary seats will go to the opposition.

The seats in Labis, Pulai and Gelang Patah are all at risks. If Shahrir Samad does not stand in Johor Baru, then that seat will migrate too.

These may not all go to PKR but DAP is set to take over some of these seats.

The opposition may increase its parliamentary presence from the current one to seven seats in Johor.

Before 2008, former economic adviser Daim Zainuddin predicted that BN will lose five states.

At that time everyone accused Daim of being past his prime and over the hill. They even hurled other unmentionables at him. But this time, too, he’s more or less saying the same thing.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman and a FMT columnist.