General elections to be held very soon

It should be pretty obvious by now that the general elections will be held very soon.



Some newspapers have reported that it will be held some time in the first half of July before the fasting month of Ramadhan starts.


If this window is missed, then it will have to be after the Hari Raya Aidil-Fitri celebrations and the likely date will be some time in September.


But at the rate that the Barisan Nasional Government and politicians have shifted gears and started moving faster with swift and stinging attacks on the Opposition figures, it looks like the more likely date will be in July.


This will indeed be the most highly-anticipated general elections in Malaysia for a long time.


Can Pakatan Rakyat march all the way to Putrajaya and seize power?


Will Barisan Nasional lose after having controlled this nation (in one form or other) since its Independence?


Will Malaysia finally have a two-party (or two-coalition) political system?

Nobody can stop the Word of God

Kingdoms come and kingdoms go, emperors come and emperors go, sultans come and sultans go, emirs come and emirs go, politicians come and politicians go, presidents come and presidents go, prime ministers come and prime ministers go, home affairs ministers come and home affairs ministers go, political parties come and political parties go.


The only entity that is eternal is God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That has always been the case from the beginning of time and will be the case till the end of time.


Nobody in this world - the Roman emperors, the dictators, the racists, the bigots, the despots, the Communists  - can stop the Word of God.


The Government of Malaysia has learnt that the hard way, unfortunately.


It was only when the Malaysian government was faced with a strong challenge by the Malaysian Christians who were motivated possibly by a divine force that the government finally caved in and ended the Malay Bible issue in an amicable way.


That the Opposition coalition had quickly backed the Christian cause perhaps for their own political ends helped push the Barisan Nasional government to reverse its own foolhardy decisions.


Of course, the prospect of the Barisan Nasional coalition losing the Christian vote in the coming Sarawak state election and the next general election was taken into consideration by the Barisan leaders when they made their decision.


Actually the entire Malay Bible episode has worked against the Barisan Nasional government because the perception of the people is that it is inconsistent and weak even though Barisan leaders may try to portray themselves as accommodating, moderate and "of the people".


Anyone who followed the developments of the Malay Bible controversy would know that Barisan leaders had given conflicting, confusing and inconsistent statements on the issue.


Meanwhile, the Pakatan Rakyat leaders have been consistent in their moderate and accommodating stance that they have no issues with Malay Bibles and that followers of Abrahamaic faiths - Muslims, Christians and Judaists - can use 'Allah', the Arabic word for 'God'.


PAS leaders have even said that Christians are "People of the Book" and should be treated with respect.


So even though the Barisan Nasional government has finally decided to be moderate and allowed Bibles in all languages including Malay and Bahasa Indonesia to be imported into Malaysia without any official Ministerial stamping or serial numbering in Sabah and Sarawak - while Malay/Indonesian Bibles must have the words 'Christian publication' and a crucifix sign on the front cover in peninsular Malaysia - it is viewed as a victory for Pakatan Rakyat.


Barisan Nasional leaders could have avoided shooting themselves in the foot by shunning  the racists and bigots in their midst from the outset.

Still an uphill battle for Barisan

As expected, Barisan Nasional cruised to victories in both by-elections in Galas, Kelantan, and Batu Sapi in Sabah.

The mood in the Barisan Nasional camp is obviously buoyant and everybody seems to be in the mood to celebrate especially since the victories coincided with the Hindu festival of Deepavali, which marks the victory of good over evil.

But just because of that coincidence, Barisan should not treat the by-election victories as victories of good over evil.

To treat the Opposition as evil would be the downfall of the ‘good’ guys.

This is simply because the victories are not reflective of the situation in other parts of Malaysia.

In Galas, which was a Barisan stronghold and a state seat within the Parliamentary constituency of Gua Musang where Umno veteran and Kelantan prince Tengku Razaleigh has reigned as king for many years, it was Ku Li’s charisma, influence and stature that won over the Orang Asli and Chinese voters (and some Malay voters too) that resulted in the Barisan victory.

Barisan’s Abdul Aziz Yusoff polled 5,324 votes against Dr Zulkefli Mohamed from PAS who obtained 4,134 votes.

In Batu Sapi, some observers say it was the emotional factor that pulled in the sympathy votes since fielding the widow of the late Batu Sapi MP, Datuk Edmund Chong Ket Wah, ensured that voters would be sympathetic to her cause (if at all she had a cause).

Barisan candidate Datin Linda Tsen Thau Lin of PBS won the Batu Sapi Parliamentary seat - she polled 9,773 votes to defeat PKR’s Ansari Abdullah (3,414 votes) and SAPP president Datuk Yong Teck Lee (2,031 votes).

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was quick to state that while the wins in Galas and Batu Sapi could bolster the coalition’s chances in the next general election, it should not take things easy.

“Barisan can’t take things for granted, we still have a lot to do,” the Deputy Prime Minister said at the MIC Deepavali open house at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

He is right - Barisan cannot take things for granted. Two victories in battles (in rather remote battlefields) do not mean Barisan can win the war.

Can Barisan win the battles in the urban areas? Can Barisan win the battles in Chinese-majority seats? Can Barisan win back the States and seats now controlled by Pakatan Rakyat?

Can Barisan win over the support of impressionable, rebellious and disenfranchised Malaysians? Can Barisan win over the support of the young voters who have grown up from adolescence to adulthood in an atmosphere of cynicism, skepticism and disbelief?

Despite the easy victories in the two by-election battles, it will still be an uphill battle for Barisan in the next general election.