THE state general elections in six states – Penang, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah – will be a crucial test whether the “green tide” in the 15th General Election (GE15) is invincible or a fluke shot notwithstanding the 16,260-vote majority win of Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate in Padang Serai parliamentary constituency on Wednesday (Dec 7).
An analysis of the three parliamentary seats won by PN in Penang – two by PAS and one by Bersatu – shows that the combined votes of the two Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim unity government candidates exceeded the votes of the PN candidates.
As for Permatang Pauh seat, the combined votes of the Pakatan Harapan (PH)-PKR candidate, Nurul Izzah Anwar received 32,638 votes and BN-UMNO candidate Mohd Zaidi Mohd Said who secured 16,971 votes totalled 49,337 votes – more than the winning vote of the PN-PAS candidate, Mohd Fawwaz Mat Jan who secured 37,638 votes.
Kepala Batas seat, the combined votes of BN-UMNO candidate Reezal Merican Naina Merican received 25,737 votes and MUDA candidate Danial Abdul Majeed who got 14,214 votes came to 39,951 votes – more than the winning vote of the PN-PAS candidate, Mastura Muhammad who secured 28,604 votes.
The same story applies to the Tasek Gelugor seat where the combined votes of the BN-UMNO candidate Muhammad Yusuff Mohd Noor who won 18,684 votes and PH-Amanah candidate Nik Abdul Razak Nik Md Ridzuan who won 16,547 votes came to 35,237 votes – more than the winning vote of the PN-Bersatu candidate Datuk Wan Saifulruddin Wan Jan who secured 31,116 votes.
Moreover, political analyst Bridget Welsh estimated that PH won approximately 11% of the Malay voters in Peninsular Malaysia but former Bangi MP and former International Trade and Industry deputy minister Ong Kian Ming estimated that PH’s Malay support would be higher than 11% in states where it is the incumbent state government — Selangor (52.4%), Penang (59.4%) and Negri Sembilan (44.4%).
Furthermore, I have never been a believer of the inevitability of any movement even since the time in the fifties in the last century when there were those who believed in the inevitability of communism.
The future of the “green tide” in GE15 will depend on whether effective measures are taken to end the toxic politics of lies, fear, hate, race and religion and whether the Anwar’s unity government can make Malaysia great again by building a first-rate world-class Malaysian nation in various fields of human endeavour, including a clean, honest and incorruptible government, and stopping the national decline in the past six decades. — Dec 10, 2022
Retired DAP supremo and former Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang, 81, has a colourful political career spanning 57 years.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
