Two lions are roaring in Kedah

REPORTERS covering the Kedah election are puzzled about the caretaker mentri besar who had dropped out of sight for several days.

They have been asking: What has happened to Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor?

Nobody seems to know and even his team was unsure about his daily schedule.

"Sometimes he goes around to meet voters in the kampung," said an aide when asked about where his boss would be on Wednesday (Aug 9).

Sanusi has been rather low-key after making news every day, sometimes for the wrong reasons. There were rumours he would be arrested and even of threats to his life but they were pure rumours.

His detractors thought these accounts were to whip up sympathy for the Kedah leader who has been the target of attack, from libel suits amounting to millions of ringgit to the sensational sedition charges.

There was also speculation that the top PAS leadership, concerned by the string of lawsuits against Sanusi, has advised him not to invite more controversy towards polling day.

His party leadership is also said to be upset that he had not stopped local PAS leaders from standing as Independents after the Langkawi seats of Kuah and Air Hangat were allocated to Bersatu.

The next two days will be critical because this is when fence-sitters make up their mind although the battle lines in Kedah are so starkly drawn that it is doubtful there are many fence-sitters left.

Moreover, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is planning to stage Pakatan/Umno’s grand finale event in Sungai Petani.

The fighter in Anwar is not backing off from the Sanusi wave and the Prime Minister is determined to make a final push in Kedah, to ask Kedahans to come along with him.

This has lifted the mood of the Pakatan/Umno team and Kedah Umno chairman Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid, known as Tok Det, was at his most upbeat since the campaign began.

Moreover, the Prime Minister will be in Pedu on Friday (Aug 11) afternoon before the grand finale to lend his weight to Mahdzir, who is fighting a critical battle.

Pedu is a hinterland seat bordering Thailand and which comprises 85% Malays.

Anwar’s stop at Pedu is highly significant and it is to signal that Tok Det is Pakatan/Umno’s mentri besar candidate.

There are two other possible mentri besar candidates apart from Tok Det and they are Dr Ismail Salleh who is contesting in Pengkalan Kundor and Datuk Mahfuz Omar in Alor Mengkudu.

Who would have thought that Pakatan/Umno would choose Kedah for their finale showdown? It is understood that the circle around Anwar would have preferred him to hold the finale in Selangor which is facing a distinct Malay wave.

But Sanusi has eclipsed every single one of his opponents in Kedah and Anwar is determined to show that not everyone is afraid of Sanusi.

Is this going to dampen the Perikatan Nasional mood in Kedah and pose a setback to its winning streak? The concerted attacks against Sanusi have dented his habit of shooting from the hip, but he is still incredibly popular.

"Kedah people like this type of leader. Nobody can really touch him for now," said Houzraff Mohd Hashim, the owner of a restaurant in Alor Setar.

Sanusi was in Bayu, a remote seat in Baling, on Wednesday to flag off the "Convoi Gelombang", the motorbike convoys that PAS is famous for.

Baling is where Anwar first burst into the national consciousness as a radical student leader who stood up for the plight of the hardcore poor in Kedah.

Sanusi grew up among this hardcore peasantry that once dominated Kedah’s rural landscape and whose plight was so poignantly captured in Professor Emeritus Shanon Ahmad’s classic novel, "No Harvest But A Thorn".

It is ironic that Anwar is now on the opposite side of the man who came from the proletariat class that he once championed.

The beautiful afternoon of blue skies dotted with clouds that looked like white cotton candy had turned gloomy as a massive crowd of bikers and local Baling folk waited to see Sanusi.

A large part of the final phase of the Perikatan campaign will involve the "Convoi Gelombang" or motorbike convoy of hundreds of young bikers who often resemble an advancing army of support and votes flowing towards Perikatan.

When Sanusi climbed onto the stage, all he had to do was to raise his right arm in the air and the crowd went wild as they followed suit.

The drizzle turned into a downpour as he started speaking but the crowd did not move. It is one of those sights that make you feel that you are watching something special unfolding before your eyes.

Whatever his opponents are doing to him has not affected the heartland support for him.

"They are using the entire government machinery against me, day and night. But it’s okay, I will just raise my arm," he said, as the crowd roared its support.

Anwar will be like one lion going into another lion’s den in Kedah this Friday night.

It is unlikely he will be able to create an upset in Kedah but he could possibly save more seats from the Sanusi wave and stop it from spilling over into neighbouring Seberang Prai.