Team Rosmah pips Team Mahathir: Discontent over candidates list may burn BN from inside

Indignation is fast rising over the BN's controversial candidates list, with Prime Minister Najib Razak's wife Rosmah Mansor accused of trying to shut the door on supporters of former premier Mahathir Mohamad.

Opposition rivals, pundits and even disgruntled BN members themselves have pointed to what they described as "weird" and "suspicious" choices in the lists unveiled by the various BN component parties including key partners Umno and the MCA over the past 2 days.

One such 'hot seat', the Wangsa Maju parliamentary constituency, is fast turning out to be a sizzler that might well burn the BN from inside.

"It is clear Najib chose not just an Umno member but his personal crony over the MCA candidate," PKR senior leader Tan Kee Kwong toldMalaysia Chronicle.

"I know Yew Teong Look personally and he has been very active and is quite well respected by the constituents. I had been looking forward to a good and clean contest with. Now I will have to face Umno's Shafie Abdullah and I will try my best to beat him too

Burning from inside

Kee Kwong, who will represent the Opposition in the Wangsa Maju seat during the May 5 general election, was referring to Najib's political secretary Shafie Abdullah and Yew, the MCA Wangsa Maju division chief.

Yew was unceremoniously dropped after last-minute hush-hush horse trading between the top MCA and Umno leadership. According to Yew, he has spent RM2.5mil campaigning and working the Wangsa ground since losing the seat in 2008 by a mere 150 votes to PKR-turncoat Wee Choo Keong.

Yew's supporters are now threatening to immobilize 120 NGOs based in the area to boycott the coming election.

"We will hold a series of protests against the top MCA leadership to condemn and criticize party president Chua Soi lek for surrendering Wangsa Maju to Najib. I belive the Chinese voters in Wangsa Maju will throw their support behind the Opposition for this injustice and BN will lose badly in the 13th General Election," Lim Choon Hong, the Wangsa Maju MCA organizing secretary, was reported as saying by Harakahdaily.

Peas in a pod: Ibrahim Ali, Zul Noordin

Also glaring was the way that Najib had refused to allow Pasir Mas MP Ibrahim Ali to contest under the BN banner despite a highly-publicized recommendation from the 87-year-old Mahathir.

While the move to ditch Ibrahim, widely regarded as a racist, was applauded, observers point to Najib's selection of the just-as-controversial Zulkifli Noordin. This "double standard" proved that "transformation" was not the PM's real goal but rather internal maneuvering against his own party mates.

"To many people, Zul Noordin is a religious bigot. He is every bit as extremist as Ibrahim Ali," a highly-placed Umno watcher told Malaysia Chronicle.

"So don't be fooled by Najib's double-tongued talk of wanting to transform Malaysia or to reform the current BN brand of racial and religious politicking. Something fishy is going on and so far what we see all points to Rosmah making a last bid to neutralize Mahathir. If Mahathir is weakened, it will be much more difficult for him to remove Najib as the Umno president and prime minister than if he were strong and his men all in position at Parliament and the state assemblies.

Team Mahathir loses out to Team Rosmah

Apart from Zul Noordin, many are also puzzled at how Mahathr's son Mukhriz was shuffled out of his Jerlun parliamentary seat to the much more risky Ayer Hitam state seat. It was all more suspicious when the government-controlled media hailed the move as being a prelude to make Mukhriz the next Kedah MB.

However, the Kedah state government is currently controlled by the Opposition and PAS chief minister Azizan Abdul Razak looks capable of defending his administration's hold on power. If the Pakatan retains the state government, Mukhriz - even if he wins at Ayer Hitam - would practically be relegated to "nobody status".

It did not help when the rather unpopular Rosmah publicly told BN candidates who had been left out not to sulk, asking them to throw their support behind the ones chosen by her husband.

Her comments immediately made the rounds and she was berated for being too aggressive and speaking out of line, given that her role as the prime minister's wife should be strictly non-political.

"Two days ago, my husband came home and he looked slightly downcast. I asked why (he was so). He then answered that he did not like to disappoint people," Rosmah said in a speech at an Umno women's event.

Throwaway candidates, massive fraud on the cards

Some other weak choices that have been pointed out by pundits were the selection of Gerakan's A Kohilan to take on DAP's Gobind Singh in Puchong, Dominic Lau to take on PKR's Tian Chua in Batu, and Jayanthi Balaguru to contest Segambut against DAP's Lim Lip Eng.

To many, the re-ignition of the Rosmah-Mahathir feuding in Umno, which has ruled Malaysia for the past 55 years, is a blessing for the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

"Of course, it will help us if the Umno-BN infighting continues to intensify. But basically, Pakatan leaders cannot afford to relax especially in the last lap. Instead we must be even more vigilant because it is very obvious from the throwaway candidates they have named for some of the seats, Umno-BN already has another strategy in place. And this we believe is electoral fraud," said Kee Kwong.

"The electoral roll has been gazetted and there is very little that we can do now to get it cleaned up or to ensure that all the fictitious and phantom names are deleted. We can only appeal to voters once again to come out in droves to vote. This is the best way to beat cheating. Everyone must make their vote count. Then only can we have reform and Malaysia be transformed."

Kee Kwong's division will be holding a ceramah umum or major forum on Thursday, April 18, at Section 1, nearby to the school Sekolah SK Wangsa Maju (behind Public Bank) at 9pm.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli and Lt General (Rtd) Abdul Ghaffir will be among the star-studded lineup expected to share their thoughts on the BN candidates and the PR's chances at GE13.

Malaysia Chronicle