Anwar hints at election comeback in Penang

by Terence Netto February 5, 2008

Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has dropped tantalising hints to voters that he may contest a by-election in Balik Pulau, on Penang island, in May. He was addressing a ceramah last Saturday in Kampung Terang in Balik Pulau, the island’s only rural parliamentary constituency, one of three locations he visited in his home state during a weekend of campaigning. Speaking from a dilapidated wooden house that stands on eroding concrete stilts, he said: “In 1987, while I was in the cabinet, I insisted that this whole area be supplied with electricity and piped water. “It was supplied but there has been little further improvement to this place since then. If the PKR candidate wins here in the coming election (widely expected in March), I may contest here in a by-election in May.” The crowd of some 500 cheered. They obviously knew that this could see a dramatic transformation of the constituency from rural rusticity to something better. After all, the ruling Barisan Nasional had shown its munificent strategy in the Ijok by-election, for example. Earlier, Anwar had pointed out Yusmadi Yusoff (photo) to the crowd, a gesture that could be interpreted as a sign of his eventual selection to contest the Balik Pulau seat. Yusmadi, 32, was born in Balik Pulau and now practises law in Kuala Lumpur. He joined PKR last July, and had accompanied Anwar to the ceramah. Anwar is barred by law from contesting the elections up to April 15, following his conviction and six-year jail sentence for corrupt practice. The opposition has not been able to pry Balik Pulau out of Umno’s grasp thus far, though the poverty of the fishermen and farmers who live there sits uncomfortably with development across the island. Balik Pulau’s backwardness has given many an opposition candidate – from the socialist Kassim Ahmad in the 1982 general election to academic Dr Rohana Ariffin (photo) in 2004 – hope of victory. However, Umno incumbent Dr Hilmi Yahya trounced PKR’s Rohana by almost 13,000 votes in 2004. A PKR snatch of Balik Palau from Umno can only come on a tidal wave of change in favour of the opposition that Anwar tried hard to conjure up in his speech. Pointing to little children running around in the tented area occupied by women, Anwar asked: “What is their future if the BN government continues with projects such as the multi-billion ringgit Penang Global City Centre and leaves you to wait years for development to trickle to places like Balik Pulau? “That is why PKR will reduce the price of oil if it is elected and make education from primary to university-level free for Malaysians. That is the quickest way to get you all out of the poverty that has been your lot for over 50 years of our independence.” Pledge on education Later, in Kampung Nakan in the Bayan Baru parliamentary constituency, Anwar addressed a mixed crowd of more than 300 Chinese and Indian shopkeepers and petty traders who had braved pouring rain to hear him. Anwar described the state of university education as “a crying shame” . “Apparently, there is not one capable Chinese or Indian worthy of being chosen as vice-chancellor of the 20 public universities we have in Malaysia. All the chancellors are from one race. “More importantly, they are from one mentality, a pro-government mindset, appointed to flatter the powers-that-be and make the student population as mediocre as themselves.” Punctuating his speech with phrases in Mandarin, Anwar drew cheers when he said that a PKR government with its coalition partners would lift the “deplorable state of education” to its former heights when the “University of Malaya was a well regarded in the region and in the world”. He said the party would do so by engaging the “best talents and energies of the Malaysian people through policies that unite them in their diversity”. “Hua ren, malai ren, yin du ren, women dou shi yi jia ren,” (Chinese, Malays and Indians are one family), he said to smiles and applause. In pouring rain, huddled under umbrellas, and in darkness because a fallen tree had disrupted power supply, about 2,000 people in Permatang Damar Laut listened as Anwar flayed the BN government for its “many failures”. “You have come in rain, mud and in darkness because you want to end the mud, slush and darkness of recent years,” he said. “The PKR way is the path out of this dead end and will lead you to a new dawn where you will be assessed on what you can perform and deliver and not on whom you know and your ties to the powerful.”