Anwar enters Kuala Besut fray

Opposition leader homes in on the fence-sitters who make up 25-30% of the voter population, telling them they could make history this Wednesday.

BESUT: Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim last night went on the offensive in Kuala Besut, telling hundreds of voters at his ceramah that a vote for PAS in this Wednesday’s by-election would change the state’s history.

A PAS victory would result in both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional having 16 seats each in the Terengganu State Legislative Assembly, which may lead to a change of Menteri Besar.

“16-16 would be something extraordinary. Should (PAS candidate) Che Long win, Terengganu will become the focal point of the whole country…even the whole world will know.

“People say this has been an Umno stronghold. But PAS has won in here in 1999, it just that we need to build up our strength,” he told about 500 people at Kampung Tok Saboh last night.

Anwar also asked the local folk in the fishing port not to enslave themselves just because the BN government had dished out aid in the form of the RM200 fishermen’s subsidy and RM500 Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M).

“Do not sell out your souls just because of the RM500 or RM200. Terengganu belongs to us, the timber and petroleum revenues belong to us.

“Today (because of by-election), BN can come and throw millions of ringgit. But once it is done that’s all, they are going elsewhere,” he told the crowd.

BN candidate Tengku Zaihan Che Ku Abdul Rahman goes toe-to-toe with PAS’ Azlan Yusof in the first by-election since the May 5 polls, following the demise of BN assemblyman Abdul Rahman Mokhtar on June 26.

Abdul Rahman polled 8,809 votes against PAS candidate Napisah Ismail who received 6,375 votes in the recent general elections.

The BN sentiment

Anwar’s statement last night was a reflection of how BN’s financial policies had contributed to the ruling coalition’s high popularity among the 17,683 voters here.

A random street survey by FMT last night showed that many residents are in favour of BN because they said the RM200 allowance for fishermen had benefited a large section of the community there.

“I also receive RM300 from the welfare department every month,” said fisherman Che Nor, 42.

“The tourism industry is picking up, and they are now saying that they will deepen the estuary, which is good,” he said, referring to the RM250 million project announced by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin last week.

“I will definitely vote for BN,” he said.

Nur Idham Yusof, 25, a shop operator also shared similar views. She said there was no reason to switch camps since everything is moving in the right direction under BN.

Many others interviewees also expressed a special preference for BN, although they hold both Tengku Zaihan and Azlan (photo) in high regard.

“They are both local guys, we can’t really compare. But we are looking at the party and not the candidates,” Nur Idham said.

Fence-sitters the kingmakers

Besut MP and former Terengganu Menteri Besar Idris Jusoh had said that he was confident of a BN victory because the voting pattern would not have changed drastically since the 13th GE.

“What wrong have we done in the past two months that people want to abandon us suddenly?” he asked.

Although he also reckoned that nearly 30% of voters here are fence-sitters, he said it is unlikely for them to swing.

PAS national election chief Hatta Ramli was, however, optimistic. He said the situation now was different from before the GE because Pakatan is on the verge of getting an equal number of seats with BN in the state assembly.

“Before the GE, we only had eight seats, but now we have 15. People who did not vote for PAS in May might just vote for us this time around,” he said, adding that there are 20-25% fence-sitters who will decide the outcome on Wednesday.