It is now confirmed and very clear that Pakatan Rakyat will lose Selangor this coming general election and the unregistered opposition alliance cannot do a thing about it anymore.
Delaying the state election if (that is if Barisan Nasional) calls for general election in November, meaning will go on its own for the state election, will not help in anyway although the PR leaders thought otherwise.
Their thinking, Anwar Ibrahim as leader while the rest in PAS and DAP just being yes men – is to buy time to make amends, repair whatever needed and damage control.
They think given few more months that is from November till April next year, they can get back some of the lost votes as their influence have been dwindling fast and even the Chinese voters, who have distance themselves when the PR state government failed to fulfill their promises and pledges.
Anwar himself is losing ground when his ceramahs no longer pull the crowd and his credibility plummeted among the young Malays, whom he has been manipulating since he was expelled in late 90s.
Khalid is of course in worse position as not only voters lost faith in him, it is common knowledge that even his own party PKR, there are ‘vultures’ waiting to ‘eat’ him up anytime he falls.
The political battle ground in Selangor has changed drastically and PR leaders know they cannot hold on to that much longer.
Inter-party relationship is down with each party – DAP, PAS and PKR – silently holding the knives at each other’s back as their political ideologies differ starkly like the sky and the ground.
PAS is split between the fundamentalists who are still quietly supporting expelled leader Datuk Dr Hassan Ali and stand solid behind the Islamic state objective and liberals who are staunch followers of Anwar, chipping away the party’s support of Anwar’s opponent.
PKR is split between the three races with only the few Malays standing by Anwar while the Chinese members have their own agenda, making use of Anwar as the platform to be in power and for support from the Malays while the Indians seem to be practically on their own – leaderless.
Only the DAP stand strong with the Chinese support so long as the party continues playing the race card for if the party slips a little out of the race card, the Chinese support may just slip away and the whole PR may collapse.
Such is the scenario in PR and that is why the leaders in Selangor felt it is better to contest the state election at different time so that the pressure on them and the voters’ minds may lightened – choose candidates for the parliamentary seats at one time and state seats few months later.
It is a damage control psychology, lightening the full impact of a possible ‘political tsunami’ in Selangor because if PR, in particular PKR, loses Selangor, the psychological impact would be so great that Anwar and other PKR leaders may find themselves swept away from the mainstream and forgotten as time passes by.
But one thing they forgot when making the announcement, BN and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is in no hurry to hold the general election in November.
After all, when the going is getting better why stop – its best to just ride on it – after deadline for general election as stipulated under the Constitution is April.
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