BN using Anwar to confuse voters?

It is very obvious that BN keeps creating issue after issue to finish off Pakatan while, at the same time, giving out cash to woo the rakyat.

COMMENT

The mainstream media is continuing to harp on the so-called disagreement among Pakatan Rakyat component parties over the choice of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister.

This is done with the intention to create a perception among the public that Pakatan is constantly at loggerheads due to this issue and therefore unfit to govern.

PAS has been blamed as the main culprit in this matter because during the PAS muktamar (general assembly) in November last year, an overzealous PAS member had proposed that PAS president and Marang MP, Abdul Hadi Awang, be the prime minister should Pakatan succeed in gaining control of Putrajaya in the 13th general election.

The 11th hour faux pas by a PAS delegate has been picked up and highlighted with the usual hype and spin by the Barisan Nasional-controlled media and turned into a firestorm threatening to engulf Pakatan.

Pro-BN political analysts plus various individuals have also joined in the fray criticising Pakatan as failing to reach a consensus.

On Feb 26, a mainstream English daily has even reported that PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu, popularly known as Mat Sabu, has refrained from openly endorsing Anwar. This is in contrast to the stand made by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng who firmly endorses Anwar as the candidate to be the prime minister due to his good performance when he was the finance minister.

The same English daily also reported that there was talk that a compromise has been reached between PAS and DAP leaders for Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, the long-time and current Gua Musang MP, to be considered as the prime minister-designate.

This report certainly paints DAP in a bad light, making it seem that while Guan Eng is openly endorsing Anwar, at the back of it, DAP leaders are secretly making deals to put in another candidate.

Thus BN’s media is now working overtime in attempting to portray DAP and PAS as going against PKR by stabbing PKR’s back.

This is done with the intention of causing Pakatan to be destroyed from within.

Media propaganda

A PKR strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, opined that the 13th general election will only be called once big cracks appear in Pakatan.

This is because fence-sitters will be influenced by what they perceive as Pakatan breaking up and therefore the best bet would be to stick to voting for BN which has been continuously portrayed as being firm, steady and united.

BN’s use of massive media propaganda is a factor that cannot be underestimated.

This is on top of their ploy of frightening the rural Malays that should Pakatan win the 13th general election, DAP’s Chinese will “control the country”.

For the urban and educated folks, BN uses the Goebbels strategy of repeating a lie as many times as possible so that this lie will be transformed into a truth in people’s mind.

The media executes this strategy by continuously pounding home the message that “Pakatan is disunited and cracking up”.

How far the effects of this strategy can go in influencing fence-sitters is difficult to ascertain, but those who do not bother to read the online news portals will be the ones who will be affected.

As for Anwar, the media portrayed him as evasive and reluctant to speak on the matter when the “prime minister” question is being posed to him by journalists.

Even if one argues that the party which wins the most seats in Pakatan should be the one providing its candidate as prime minister, logically this role will also fall to PKR.

It is highly unlikely for PAS to win more seats than PKR given the fact that PAS will be contesting mostly in the rural Malay seats which are Umno strongholds.

It is very obvious that BN keeps creating issue after issue to finish off Pakatan while, at the same time, giving out cash to woo the rakyat.

And this two-pronged strategy is being intensified in a frantic bid to woo the fence-sitters as we get nearer to April 28 (the date of Parliament’s automatic dissolution).

Diversion tactic

Commenting on BN’s strategy to confuse the rakyat, PAS Shah Alam MP, Khalid Samad, is of the view that the Pakatan candidate to hold the prime minister’s post will be picked by consensus by all Pakatan parties. So, it will be none other than Anwar because to put it simply: Anwar has the majority vote.

“There is definitely no confusion in this matter although it is BN which is confused and, at the same time, trying to confuse the rakyat,” said Khalid.

It is clear that the prime minister-candidate issue is a BN ploy to divert the rakyat’s attention from the real core issues affecting the nation – such as crime, cronyism and corruption.

Hopefully, voters can see through BN’s Machiavellian ploy and not get side-tracked, thus forgetting the main issues of the day.

Hence we see Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak purposely delaying the polls in the hope that Pakatan will either make major tactical blunders or simply fall apart.

Therefore it looks like we may have to brace ourselves for the long haul while waiting for the general election.

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.