The 14th general election is just around the corner, as parties on both sides of the divide are gearing up for the ultimate showdown. All this hints that the election war is about to kick off in a big way.
Pakatan Harapan has made the first move by announcing its election manifesto on March 8, pledging ten initiatives to be implemented within the first 100 days in office, including the abolition of GST and limiting the tenure of prime minister.
PAS also unveiled its manifesto ten days later, with GST abolition its foremost concern.
As for Barisan Nasional, it has fixed April 7 as the date to announce its manifesto. All that we know so far is that youth agenda will be among its main aspects.
Election manifestos aside, political parties are also expediting the mobilization of their candidates in a bid to take down their opponents. DAP, in particular, has been quite aggressive of late, announcing its plans to unseat MCA reps from their safe zones in Johor.
Johor DAP chief cum Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong will move over to Ayer Hitam for the ultimate clash with MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong.
In addition, DAP’s Damansara Utama state assemblywoman Yeo Bee Yin will also head south, while Selangor state assembly speaker Hannah Yeoh is said to run for a parliamentary seat in Johor, too.
As for the ruling coalition, component parties such as MCA and Gerakan Rakyat have announced some of their candidates while BN chairman Najib said he would announce the names of candidates earlier to give them ample time to prepare for the battle ahead.
We are now waiting for the prime minister to officially declare the dissolution of the Parliament to kickstart the election war. Judging from the existing circumstances, Johor will remain one of the most intensely fought battlegrounds in the coming election.
Johor continues to be a frontline state in Pakatan Harapan’s strategy, and key to claim Putrajaya. DAP is sending its strongest contenders to MCA’s strongholds in the south, and PPBM is eyeing a lion’s share of the state under the party’s president Muhyiddin Yassin.
It is generally believed that GE14 will be held in late April or early May. With the election heat gathering in intensity and cyber wars already started, it is foreseeable that all kinds of wicked political assaults will be launched as the clock ticks closer to the polling day.
For a democratic country like Malaysia, fierce rivalry among political parties during elections is indeed a norm, but importantly all participating parties and their candidates must uphold the culture of healthy democracy and fight the battle like gentlemen without the dirty tricks.
MEANWHILE, according to The Malaysian Insight:
Syed Saddiq to take on deputy minister in Muar
MARK this down as one of the battles of the 14th general election. Call it David versus Goliath. Or just think of it as the fresh face versus the battle-tested campaigner.
Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, one of Bersatu’s most followed leaders on social media, is set to go up against deputy minister Razali Ibrahim in Muar, said sources in Bersatu.
Sources told The Malaysian Insight that the party has agreed to field the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) graduate against Razali, who is a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and three-term incumbent in the Johor constituency.
“He has been given the green light to contest in Muar. It is as good as confirmed but we don’t know if there are any last-minute changes,” one source said.
Another source said Muar is a marginal seat (4%) and the mixed-race profile of the seat suited Syed Saddiq.
Razali, who first won the seat in 2004, defended Muar after polling 20,867 votes against PKR’s Nor Hizwan Ahmad (19,221 votes) in the 2013 elections.
The Muar seat consists of 62% Malays, Chinese (35%) and Indians (1%).
When contacted by The Malaysian Insight, Syed Saddiq declined to confirm or deny whether he would be contesting in Muar.
Meanwhile, Razali remain unfazed with the prospects of facing Syed Saddiq in GE14.
“I don’t care about him. This is a democracy and he can contest anywhere he wants. We need to work on our machinery. We cannot let other problems hinder our momentum,” said Razali when met at Parliament.
Syed Saddiq and Razali have been trading barbs on Twitter with the latter welcoming him to contest in Muar but noting that the voters in the southern state seat were an astute lot.
Razali also chided Syed Saddiq for not knowing the Muar constituents.
The 25-year old rebutted, saying that he was well versed with issues in Muar and if given a chance to contest, he would capture the seat.
Besides Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional, PAS-led Gagasan Sejahtera is also expected to field a candidate, making it a three-way contest.
The Muar parliamentary constituency has two state seats – Maharani and Sungai Balang.
In the last elections, Maharani fell to PAS’ Mohammad Taslim while Sungai Balang was won by BN’s Zaiton Ismail.
In a poll conducted by the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research in January, 51% of 1,007 Johoreans polled said they would give other parties a chance to administer the state.
Chinese voters were the most receptive to change at 69% followed by Indians (50%) and Malays (39%).
However, people in Muar have previously expressed their discontentment with former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Bersatu as they feel that they were dividing the Malays in Johor.
Johor is looking to be one of the front-line states in GE14 as PH aims to break Umno’s dominance in the southern state.
– MYSINCHEW
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