Winnable Candidates : Beware The Bloggers

Around this time in 2007, just a few months before the March 2008 general elections the pro-UMNO Bloggers were  out in full swing conspiring how to bring down Abdullah Badawi and his regime.  I was writing almost full time for Malaysia Today. 

Kalimullah, Khairy Jamaluddin and Kamaluddin's biggest mistake was their decision to remove all the Mahathir era writers and journalists from the mainstream media. I was not a journalist but a writer. When Dr Mahathir was the Prime Minister I wrote two columns in two different newspapers. After six years (of saying whatever I wanted to say) they just chopped off my newspaper columns. So many other journalists lost their jobs.

Then the Blog revolution chanced upon us. For almost free you could open a Blog, say what you want to say and people would read your Blog. It was as simple as that. Fueling the fire was the true, undeniable fact that Abdullah Badawi literally fell asleep in his job.  Plus there was the hanky panky.  

But the biggest mistake they made was the victimisation of Dr Mahathir Mohamed.  A third rate 'curi lembu'  fellow's son with absolutely no pedigree nor any worthy family name (and who has gotten away with millions of Ringgit worth of crony contracts) was suddenly plotting against the greatest  statesman and leader this country and the Third World had seen in decades. And they seriously expected to sustain.  They should know that no one has forgotten them. I know people who bear serious grudges against these folks and maybe their families for the next seven generations.  You have really screwed yourselves up royally. 

All this unpleasantness unleashed a huge deluge of negative energy against these people. The pro-UMNO Bloggers went all out to  make sure that Badawi would be kicked out. This has certainly come to pass.

The same Bloggers are still in place. And now, after many more years of Blogging, the same Bloggers have accumulated millions of hits, followers and supporters. Do not underestimate the influence and the reach of the Blogs. 

Many of them are now with the Prime Minister. Here I can vouch that all the pro-UMNO Bloggers fully support the Prime Minister Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak in leading the party and the nation onward.  The Bloggers also support the deputy party president and Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyudin Yasin. 

However I am quite certain that the love stops there. Beyond the PM and the Deputy PM, no one can say for sure if the Bloggers support any of the other Cabinet Ministers, the other UMNO and BN  leaders, MPs and ADUNs.  

The Bloggers certainly are against many of the Jurassic Park candidates who are left overs from the Abdullah Badawi regime. We are still perplexed why the PM has kept them around. Too many of them are serious liabilities. 

So here is my prediction. Parliament will be dissolved soon. Once Parliament is dissolved, the Federal Constitution provides 60 days before Polling. In practise however the whole thing is over in about three weeks.  

Nomination Day for candidates will take place say within about a week to 10 days (plus or minus) after Parliament is dissolved. After Nomination Day, the elections will follow in say about another week to 10 days. It will all be over in about three weeks. 

Imagine a situation where 10 days before the Polling Date, the pro-BN Bloggers start throwing bricks against  BN candidates who they do not like?  The party leadership better think about this very carefully. 

DO NOT EXPECT THE BLOGS TO SUPPORT CANDIDATES THAT NO ONE REALLY LIKES OR WHO HAVE BEEN THE CAUSE OF OUR PROBLEMS BEFORE.

The Bloggers may consider it a sabotage if these remnants from the Badawi regime show their faces again for PRU13. The same goes for the Jurassic Park candidates. 

It will indeed be a sabotage of the party if these candidates reappear on the ballot. There are not many of these past due date candidates anyway - just about two dozen of them. Surely a country of 28 million people has better choices who can replace these two dozen or so problem causers.

So imagine a situation where 10 days before Polling Day, it is the pro-UMNO Bloggers who are throwing brick-bats against UMNO and other BN candidates? Wouldnt that be  embarrassing? And many of the UMNO Bloggers know  "secrets" of many of these people whom they really do not like.  Thankfully there are only about two dozen or so of these problem candidates at the national level.

I hope the PM and the Deputy PM will read this. I hope their various communications teams will take note of this point. In 2008 it was the pro-UMNO  Bloggers who brought down the Badawi regime. They can influence the voters. Dont play play.