MALAYS STILL DANCING TO UMNO’S STRANGE LOGIC & ‘TONE DEAF’ HADI’S CRAZY FOXTROT? THINK AGAIN: FAKE SMILES & BROTHERLY HUGS ONLY AT TOPMOST ECHELON, BELOW THE SURFACE PAS GRASSROOTS HATE UMNO’S GUTS – REPORT

Annuar Musa said the low voter turnout in the Sungai Kandis by election is evidence that the people are rejecting the Pakatan Harapan government. This is very strange logic indeed.

If the people of Sungai Kandis wanted to reject the PH government then why didn’t they vote for Barisan Nasional? Wouldn’t that be a better form of protest instead of staying at home? It is more probable that people were not prepared to spend time voting when the last time they did so was just a few months ago. Especially for those who may live in other towns.

Furthermore, despite the fact that only slightly over 50% of the voters actually voted compared to the 80% during the General Election, the PH candidate got 62% of the vote compared to the 56% they got in May.

Let us also not forget that in this contest PAS decided to sit it out in order to avoid a three-corner fight and in this way give BN more of a chance. Since PAS was openly backing BN, logically speaking 17% of votes that went to PAS in May should have gone to BN and the combined votes would have made the contest a much closer one.

Looking at all the facts it seems impossible to view this election in any other way than a clear declaration of support for PH and the rejection of BN.

This is comforting because the BN campaign has been based on its usual toxic use of race-based politics; trying to fear monger among the Malays. This appear to not have worked.

And the relationship between PAS and Umno also appear to be mainly limited to the upper echelons of the party. The grassroots do not seem to be willing to actually support Umno by voting for them.

This means that although the possibility of a PAS-Umno partnership (with all the negative racial and religious connotations that creates) still exists, one has to wonder whether the rank and file of PAS will really be happy to sleep with the old enemy just because their leaders want to.

Whatever it is, this by-election is something for PH to celebrate and not BN. It will be interesting to see what happens in the other by elections which are due.

WRITER: Prof Azmi Sharom

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