Pakatan should not get carried away

DAP does not seem to understand that Lim coming to Johor does only good for Umno. PKR does not know how to handle DAP, and PAS is uncomfortable with both PKR and DAP.

COMMENT

What does Lim Kit Siang think he is doing when he announced to all and sundry that he will be the white knight riding into Johor on a DAP ticket to do battle in Gelang Patah?

What sort of a strategy is this? You give Barisan Nasional enough time to plan a counter -attack, and now Lim most probably has Abdul Ghani Othman to contend with. Checkmate!

The fact that Lim did not factor this eventuality clearly shows that in poltics Umno tasted salt long before DAP did.

In an electorate that has 33% Malays and 12% Indians, does Lim expect to win with the votes from 54% of the urban Chinese there? That is assuming that all the Chinese in Gelang Patah will vote for DAP?

Not bloody likely! Ghani is a man of all seasons. He is the quintessential Malay unsullied by the excesses of the other menteris besar and Umno leaders. He is a rarity among Umno leaders – decent and well liked by all. Only the Johor sultan prefers Ghani to go and that, in the times that we are now in, may well work to Ghani’s advantage.

PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim talked about doing battle in Perak but when Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told him, “We will bury you and end your political career in Perak”, he slinked back to Permatang Pauh.

He now tells us that he will not abandon Permatang Pauh now that the “Jalan ke Putrajaya sudah terjamin”.

Should he not exercise better judgment and consulted with the good people of Permatang Pauh before he talked to us about the possibility of him contesting in Perak?

As far as Umno is concerned, Zahid scared Anwar off Perak. Chalk that up as a plus for Umno.

And what does Najib say? “Politically speaking, I will live and die in Pekan”. Again checkmate!

Umno, meanwhile, is quiet and its silence gives false courage to Pakatan to be more arrogant.

Umno is quietly going about consolidating its numbers among the Malays and the Indians.

Failing to strategise

Perception is everything in politics. BN support for the Indians has always been ongoing – the devil is in the details, and that, as it has always been, is a work in progress.

Here the Indians are working with the government – a slow and laborious process but concessions are won now and then – enough to keep the Indians on side.

For the Indians, Pakatan’s interest has been more of an afterthought. To Pakatan, Sabah and Sarawak take the centre stage. By and large, Pakatan has so far ignored the Indians.

The blueprint for the Indians announced recently in Johor is a DAP’s blueprint, not Pakatan Rakyat’s.

A word of advice to DAP and Pakatan: make friends before you need them. Remember Noah built his Ark before it rained!

As far as the Malays are concerned, what do you think will the entry of Lim do generally to Malay unity in Johor and to Gelang Patah in particular?

Would it not be more sensible to have a Malay enter this bastion of Umno to do battle with the Malays?

What about Penang? Here, DAP will most probably secure the state but Penang Umno has been working diligently on the ground.

Bringing down DAP’s majority in Penang will be a victory of sorts for Umno.

The general perception is that BN is the underdog and Pakatan has a slight edge but it is no reason for Anwar to publicly state that “Jalan ke Putrajaya terjamin!”.

Let us not get carried away and count our chicken before they are hatched. Let me try to sum up the situation this way.

DAP does not seem to understand that Lim coming to Johor does only good for Umno. PKR does not know how to handle DAP, and PAS is uncomfortable with both PKR and DAP. Talk about a house divided!

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.