Umno members key in winning Sungai Bakap for Pakatan, says analyst

UMNO members are shaping up to be key players in helping Pakatan Harapan (PH) wrest the Sungai Bakap state seat from Perikatan Nasional (PN) in the upcoming by-election.

As campaigning enters its first week, in what is looking to be a tight contest, Umno political analyst Azizi Safar sees the party’s members as a contributing factor in deciding who wins or loses in the by-election. Early polling is on July 2 and voting on July 6.

“There are about 5,000 registered Umno members in Sungai Bakap at last count. If all were to come out and vote for PH, it would be a telling factor.”

In the last election, the late Nor Zamri Latiff, 56, defeated PH’s Nurhidayah Che Ros, the Penang Wanita PKR head, with a majority of 1,563 votes. Azizi said many Umno members then did not vote or voted in protest for PN because they were upset that the party decided to work with arch-rivals DAP in the unity government.

Given time, Azizi said Umno members may now better understand the need for national unity as a crucial element in moving the nation past a series of crises.

However, some political insiders believe that Umno is a spent force today because decades of infighting have ruined the party.

With close to 60% of voters being Malays, Azizi believed that the Bumiputera were critical in deciding who wins or loses.

Hence, the parties need to focus on the Malay vote, he said.

He said that the Chinese vote remains solidly behind PH although the Indian vote may be shaky, as many of them in the constituency may be beholden to former three-term deputy chief minister II P. Ramasamy, who has quit DAP / PH to form a splinter party called Urimai.

It is said that it was Ramasamy who had resolved the longstanding estate workers’ squatter issue there and as a result, they were given landed properties as compensation.

The candidates also neutralised each other, PH’s Dr Joohari Ariffin is not well-known within the local community, but he is backed by a strong PH-led unity machinery.

Whereas PN’s Abidin Ismail is a popular face due to his work as an aide of Nor Zamri, who passed away suddenly last month after a bout of gastritis.

However, PN’s machinery is said to be sluggish due to internal issues and PAS traditionally is not a potent force in Penang, although the party was initially formed at Butterworth in 1951 – making it among the oldest parties in the country.

Amanah’s role is important in neutralising the racial and religious rhetoric which PAS is famous for espousing, making it difficult for any Muslim to resist its claim that as it is an Islamist party, all Muslims must support them.

Amanah’s deputy president Datuk Seri Mujahid Yusuf Rawa is on the ball in the ceramah circuit, telling voters that PAS is just another forgotten political party. – June 28, 2024.