IT'S SUICIDAL: Ghani won't be able to make it against Kit Siang - PKR' s Poh Lai

Johor PKR leaders slammed the move by Umno to deploy Johor chief minister Ghani Othman to the controversial Gelang Patah seat, saying it would only inflict self damage and heat up the already intense infighting in the ruling party.

"No way, Ghani won't be able to make a difference. Of course, as the current Mentri Besar, he will carry more weight than the MCA candidate. But Ghani is not Dr Mahathir," Tan Poh Lai, the PKR Johor Bahru division chief, told Malaysia Chronicle.

"We are confident Kit Siang will win comfortably. All the PR parties are already on the ground, we will work very hard to defeat Umno-BN. It is a bonus if Johor Umno wants to press the self-destruct button, it only helps our cause."

Kit Siang will win

Indeed, news that Ghani would take on DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang for the seat is poetic justice of a sort for the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

Over the past weeks, the PR parties of PKR and DAP have been repeatedly ridiculed by the BN media for infighting over the Gelang Patah seat, which is currently held by the MCA's Tan Ah Eng.

The Gelang Patah parliamentary seat covers 2 state seats - Skudai which is currently held by DAP Johor chief Boo Cheng Hau and Nusa Jaya which is held by Umno's Abdul Aziz Sapian.

However, with an overall electorate that is 53% Chinese in composition, few analysts doubt Kit Siang's chances of winning although he himself has expressed concern. It is also worth noting that it has not stopped the DAP veteran from issuing a challenge to former premier Mahathir Mohamad to contest the seat, which Mahathir has since rejected.

This is why the Umno decision to send in Ghani had raised eyebrows.

"The division within Umno is well-known not only in Johor, but everywhere else. It is very obvious that they (Johor Umno) don't want Ghani anymore," Chua Jui Meng, the PKR Johor chief, had told reporters earlier on Friday.

Umno horse-trading

Even within Umno, many have been saying for a long time now that Ghani has already reached his shelf-life as far Johor is concerned and that Prime Minister Najib Razak, the Umno president, had wanted to replace him with Khaled Nordin, the Minister for Higher Education.

True or not, should Ghani go for Gelang Patah and win, it would mean he will have to give up the chief minister's job he has held since 1995, and return to the federal Parliament.

Umno has yet to formally announce its candidates for GE13 but the Ghani news was 'leaked' through its controlled media and several umno leaders have commented on the possible 'transfer', including Batu Pahat MP Puad Zarkashi.

“We hope he will consider it (contesting in Gelang Patah) because he pioneered all these projects. He is the most suitable person to defend what we have in Johor,” the Star reported Puad, who is the deputy education minister, as saying.

Malaysia Chronicle