Another wake-up call for Pakatan

THE dust has yet to settle from the Johor election. The winners in Barisan Nasional are telling themselves that it is not a dream that they won bigger than expected.

On the other hand, Pakatan Harapan politicians are still reeling in shock. They not only lost several stronghold seats, but the majority of wins in the seats they held on to had crashed to new lows.

The DAP leaders especially are trying to make sense of what went wrong because their campaign had such va-va-voom while their ceramah and dinner gatherings drew huge crowds and flooded social media with optimism.

The Pakatan campaign had acquired a distinctly Chinese flavour in the final stretch because the coalition had more or less given up on Malay support and many in DAP thought they had the Chinese in the palm of their hand.

The party made such a huge play for the Yong Peng seat held by MCA’s Ling Tian Soon, who is better known as “Ah Soon,” that it set off alarm bells in MCA.

“We were worried at one point because we know their real target is our president,” said Deputy MCA Youth chief Mike Chong.

Yong Peng is a Foochow town and one of two state seats in Ayer Hitam where Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong is the MP.

It was like a Chinese movie as DAP sent an army from Perak led by its Foochow-speaking deputy chairman Nga Kor Ming to invade Yong Peng.

They kicked off with a durian feast followed by several ceramah featuring their big guns and a grand dinner with fancy tents and fairy lights.

But this Chinese movie ended badly for the invaders and “Ah Soon” not only retained the seat but doubled his winning majority from 2,741 to 4,603.

It is a cautionary tale not to send outsiders to take on a homegrown leader who started serving the locals in 2013 before he finally became as assemblyman in 2022.

“They under-estimated Ah Soon’s delivery record,” said Chong.

DAP managed to avoid another Sabah-style spectacle but retained only six of the 10 seats previously won. To rub salt into injury, every one of the seats won, with the exception of Skudai, were won with a much reduced majority.

Amanah barely managed to cling to Simpang Jeram with a majority of 170 votes, down from 2,399 previously.

The two Amanah leaders who held a post election press conference with PKR election director Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari looked depressed and defeated.

MCA, which doubled its share of seats from four to eight, was the big winner whereas Umno wiped out Perikatan Nasional’s presence in the state.

Bersatu’s Johor chairman Datuk Dr Sahrudin Jamal who previously won Bukit Kepong by 714 votes, lost to a former education officer from Barisan by a jaw-dropping 10,761 votes.

In hindsight, the wind that swept through Johor has to be credited to caretaker mentri besar Datuk Onn Hafiz whose leadership style and delivery record has gone down well with Johoreans.

Onn Hafiz understood that going in as the incumbent, it was important not to flex muscles or talk big. He cautioned his team against going overboard on rhetoric because the state’s track record speaks for itself.

His demeanour was humble and demure even as leaders heaped praises on him for the landslide win as the results rolled in.

Credit is also due to DAP candidates who were fierce, ruthless and even nasty towards their opponents during the campaign but with the election over, those who lost went on their party’s Facebook page to congratulate the winners and thank the voters and their teams.

It is a mature and professional practice that ought to be adopted by all political parties. DAP’s campaign was more realistic than that of PKR. It made no pretence of wooing the Chinese vote in order to survive.

PKR on the other hand is still in some sort of la-la-land zone, claiming that it wants to form the state government.

Pakatan was too reliant on national issues in an election where state sentiments and priorities topped the agenda.

Pakatan might have fared better if it had campaigned to be an awesome Opposition, to be the voice of the people and to play a check-and-balance role in Johor.

Mature voters understand the need for a good Opposition in any government.

Instead, Pakatan urged Johoreans to take a stand on allegations that Datuk Seri Najib Razak would be freed if Barisan won big while insisting that PAS was in cahoots with Barisan.

It was as though Pakatan could not decide whether it was campaigning to be the state government or for federal power or to be the Opposition.

The Bossku issue also backfired after two officers of a Perak DAP leader were caught on video putting up “Free Najib” banners alongside that of the Barisan candidate in Yong Peng. By then it was crystal clear that the Bossku issue was to smear Barisan and frighten the Chinese.

Revenge is sweet and the administrator of Najib’s Facebook page asked what time Najib would be freed today.

Pakatan will need to adjust their campaign narrative to do well in Negri Sembilan.

The next battle will see Negri Sembilan chairman and DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke leading the charge. He is expected to show better leadership than Johor DAP chairman Teo Nie Ching.

Teo, who is Kulai MP and Deputy Communications Minister, gave it her all but everywhere she went there was like this shadow hanging over her where people remember her singing the ABCD-GST jingle and her failed promise to gain recognition for the UEC or Unified Examination Certificate.

There is no more time left for self-denial for the vanquished or even a proper post-mortem because the next battle is around the corner.

 

> The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own