By-election sees MCA revival
By Shahrum SayuthiBACK IN ACTION: The enthusiasm of its members is real
AMONG the first to arrive at the polling station at SK Convent Kajang before it opened yesterday was a group of about 30 MCA members.
Clad in the blues of Barisan Nasional, they placed themselves not far from the centre and started to chant "Satu Malaysia!" and "Menang BN!", providing some excitement for the early voters, waiting for the school gate to be opened by Election Commission officials.
A short while later, a smaller group of PKR members turned up and gathered at the opposite site of the road and shouted "Reformasi!" and "Menang, Kak Wan!", in reference to their party's candidate, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
The enthusiasm of the MCA members was very real as they tried to drown the incessant shouts of their PKR rivals.
Despite Dr Wan Azizah's win yesterday, it was obvious from the PKR's reduced majority that Barisan Nasional, in particular, the much-maligned MCA, had finally got their work together.
Dr Wan Azizah's 5,379-vote majority was significantly lower than PKR's Lee Chin Cheh who won by 6,824-vote majority, less than a year ago in the 13th General Election (GE13).
More telling from the outcome of the poll yesterday was the early estimate by observers that suggested BN's candidate Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun, who is also MCA vice-president, had garnered more than 25 per cent of the Chinese community votes.
It was a relatively huge improvement from the estimated 10 per cent received from the community by the BN candidate Lee Ban Seng, also from MCA, in the GE13.
Judging from the MCA's new vigour following its leadership change and the apparently positive response in the by-election, the party may probably be well on the recovery process after the nightmare of the general election's Chinese tsunami last year which reduced its electoral representation to merely seven parliamentary and 11 state seats.
The positive advances by MCA in the by-election should also spell trouble for Pakatan as the die had been cast that the Chinese voters in particular are no longer buying the opposition coalition's sweeping accusations against the government -- lock, stock and barrel.
Despite the much-hyped call for Reformasi 2.0 to protest against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's five-year conviction for sodomy, this could mean that the public had gone weary of the conduct of Pakatan leaders, in particular, the PKR's engineering of the by-election itself.
The statistics could not lie. Of the 39,287 Kajang voters, only 28,314 or 72 per cent of them bothered to vote in the PKR's engineered by-election as compared to 88.40 per cent in the GE13.
The percentage of voter turnout in Kajang yesterday was also the lowest among by-elections, post GE13, with Kuala Besut by-election recording 79.76 per cent and Sungai Limau, 85 per cent turn-out.
It should be noted that the other two by-elections held in July and November last year, respectively, were held on a working day instead of a weekend, as in the case for Kajang yesterday.
The situation may have been different if Dr Wan Azizah's plea for sympathy for her husband's legal issues was before the last general election, where she would probably receive an avalanche of votes.
Bear in mind that the Kajang by-election was supposed to be Anwar's watershed moment in his quest for the seat of power in Putrajaya.
Such a pyrrhic victory by his wife in a constituency which is now the bastion of Pakatan could very well mark the end of his life-long quest to be a prime minister.
Anwar had obviously overestimated his popularity when he decided to proceed with the so-called "Kajang move", a misstep which in all likelihood will mark the end of his political relevancy.
It would not be easy for him to retain his stature as the head of the opposition following his miscalculation which had also dealt a severe blow upon his allies.
Pakatan leaders, such as DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, had during the campaigning period repeatedly expressed his conviction that Chew would be totally crushed and even lose her deposit.
It was a "loss of face" for the veteran politician for uttering such an arrogant remark as the voters, especially among the Chinese community who had overwhelmingly supported DAP and its allies during the general election last year, proved themselves to be more discerning this time.
Whether Pakatan may recover from the setback will be a question to ponder for quite awhile, but what is certain is that Anwar's desperate attempt at stimulating his ebbing efforts for power had been dealt with a severe, if not fatal, blow by his own engineered by-election.
