`


THERE IS NO GOD EXCEPT ALLAH
read:
MALAYSIA Tanah Tumpah Darahku

LOVE MALAYSIA!!!


 


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Rompin: A bad omen for Umno?

The party can no longer take the support of rural Malays for granted, says Shahbudin Husin.
rakyat, umno, rompin, najib
PETALING JAYA: Umno’s poor performance in the Rompin by-election indicates that the party can no longer take its traditional support base for granted, political analyst Shahbudin Husin says in his latest blog posting.
He notes that Rompin is the archetypal Umno stronghold. The voters there are mostly rural Malays, with many of them coming from Felda settlements. The seat lies in the state of Pahang, the home state of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who, furthermore, is also closely associated with Felda.
These factors alone, according to Shahbudin, should have ensured an overwhelming victory for Umno instead of its drastically reduced majority, particularly if the voters wanted to show they disagreed with Najib’s critics.
He also points out that the government concentrated its resources on the Barisan Nasional campaign, “giving its all”, as in all by-elections.
In yesterday’s by-election, Umno beat PAS by 8,895 votes, which was slightly more than half of its vote majority in the 2013 general election.
The Rompin results, Shahbudin says, is “nothing other than a bad omen” for Umno and Barisan Nasional. The rural Malays are no longer “blindly loyal” to Umno, he warns.
He says Umno’s dismal performance strengthens former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s forecast that Barisan Nasional will lose in the next general election unless Najib is replaced as Umno President and Prime Minister.
Shahbudin agrees with several commentators that the Rompin voters were showing their disapproval of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which they see as one of Najib’s initiatives. But he adds that the problems associated with Felda are also a factor.
“The GST and Felda issues, as well as other issues such as the 1MDB scandal, have tightened the noose around Najib’s neck and eroded the public’s confidence in his ability to lead the nation,” he says.
He speculates that Mahathir will now intensify his campaign to force Najib’s resignation because the rakyat have shown, through the Rompin by-election, that they are behind the former prime minister.
He congratulates Rompin voters for “not marginalising themselves” from the call for change. He says he expects the results from tomorrow’s Permatang Pauh by-election to show a similar trend.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.