Two Interesting Commentaries

21 May 2014
DAP may have misjudged voters
By Shahrum Sayuthi 

EXPERIENCE COUNTS: BN can win seat if Mah puts campaign into high gear

IT was obvious from the start of this Teluk Intan by-election campaign that DAP has the advantage over Barisan Nasional.

Barely a year ago, its candidate, the late Seah Leong Peng, defeated BN's Datuk Mah Siew Keong and independent candidate K. Moralingam with a 7,313-vote majority.

On paper, Mah, the Gerakan president who was once again chosen as the BN candidate to represent the people of Teluk Intan, should find it tough to reverse such a huge majority.

Nonetheless, DAP's fielding of a young female Malay candidate in this constituency, where the Chinese make up the biggest block of voters at 41 per cent, requires the party to project the underdog image. Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud played that role well on Monday.

Speaking to reporters after the nomination process, she said her main challenge in the by-election was facing an experienced and respected opponent.

"As a young candidate, I have to face an experienced and respected opponent. For me, that is a challenge," she said, adding that she considered herself the underdog.

Mah is indeed no greenhorn. He is, after all, a local and was Teluk Intan member of parliament from 1999 to 2008 as well as the president of a party. At 52, he is also not too old.

However, Dyana Sofya, who is just 27 and whose only political experience is being the aide of DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, has the full might of her party's well-oiled machinery in a constituency that, for the past half a decade, has been transformed into an opposition stronghold.

In these early days of campaigning, DAP is clearly in the lead, with posters of Dyana Sofya and the party's flags outnumbering those of Mah and BN's in Teluk Intan.

Her reputed good looks was also a main draw, with many attending DAP ceramah just to have a look at her.

It is, without a doubt, a novelty to see a good-looking young Malay lady being a devoted DAP member, what more chosen as the party's candidate.

If  DAP had chosen her to draw attention away from its tussle with Pas over hudud, it was clearly a success.

Pas supporters attending a ceramah at Kampung Bahagia on Sunday night were not interested in hearing about the virtues of the party's efforts to implement the syariah penal code, and instead were more keen to see and hear the winsome young DAP candidate on stage.

It is highly likely DAP may get extra votes from Malay constituents by fielding Dyana Sofya on top of retaining the overwhelming support of the local Chinese community which powered it to victory in the general election last year.

Everything, however, is not lost for BN, as voters in Teluk Intan may not be as simplistic as calculated by DAP strategists. They may even find such tactics by DAP an insult to their intelligence.

Mah may still turn the table around if BN shift their campaign gear a few notches higher over the coming days and all the way to polling day on May 31


COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

It is just supposed to be a parliamentary by-election but the battle for Teluk Intan is now between Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud (pic) and Umno, which appears to be rattled by her candidacy on a DAP ticket.

She has apparently struck fear in several Umno leaders, from Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil  – who have all castigated the political novice for not joining Umno.

Even Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali has thrown his soiled fingers into the fray, urging Gerakan to use a photograph of him together with the 27-year-old DAP candidate as campaign fodder.

But Gerakan has refused to use the photograph as part of the campaign by their president Datuk Mah Siew Keong, the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for the May 31 by-election.

So why is Umno so afraid of the young UiTM law graduate, whose mother is an Umno member? Several reasons come to mind.

One. Dyana Sofya's candidacy on a DAP ticket shows that Umno is not the only party for Malays, apart from PKR or PAS. Particularly when more Malaysians are seeing themselves as Malaysians and not identifying themselves along racial lines.

As more of that happens, Umno and other race-based parties and even groups like Perkasa will have fewer members and cease to exist or even be relevant in Malaysia.

Dr Mahathir, Shahrizat and even Ibrahim can't allow this to happen because this will be the end of Umno and its dominance in Malaysian politics.

Two. Dr Mahathir is right, the younger generation have forgotten the hard work of the early Umno members and leaders. Perhaps that is because the old Umno was de-registered under his watch.

The Umno today is Umno Baru, a pale shadow of the Umno of Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak Hussein that fought for Malaya's independence in 1957. The Umno today believes in keeping everything for itself, and only sharing the crumbs with others.

And every day, Umno gives Malaysians a reason to detest them. Every day.

Three. Dyana Sofya's candidacy shows that there are political parties out there willing to gamble on youth and idealism rather than just rely on the tried and tested or the experienced politician.

There isn't much of a queue in DAP unlike BN parties where party presidents and top officials are favoured as candidates over younger members. Perhaps it is also the fact that young talent have deserted the BN component parties.

Malaysia's future belongs to Dyana Sofya's generation, not the ones who have already tasted power and want to keep it for a while more.

Four. Dyana Sofya's candidacy shows that young graduates, even from local varsities, such as UiTM, have the intelligence, mettle and leadership skills to strike their own path instead of following what their parents want them to do.

These young Malaysians can think and know they can make the difference. They are hungry and they don't want to bide their time.

If anything, this mindset is the anti-thesis of a typical BN member who does what he or she is told and waits patiently in line for a shot at political office.

Only some, especially those in the inner circle, make it in BN. That might not be the case in DAP or other PR parties which have had to put up young candidates due to the lack of those willing to run for political office.

If more Malaysians, especially Malays, follow Dyana Sofya's footsteps, then a party like Umno will come to an untimely end.

Umno cannot allow that to happen and it has to demonise, castigate, heckle and humiliate Dyana Sofya so that others will not follow her footsteps and join parties willing to take a chance on them.

Her success and victory in Teluk Intan will be more than just DAP keeping a seat in parliament or another young Malay becoming a DAP MP. It also means that Umno cannot assert itself as the only platform for the Malays to keep power or run Malaysia.

That is the sad state of Umno these days, that it has to fight a young woman just to keep power. - May 20, 2014.