Some are holding their breath, some simply don't bother, but the looming General Election, the 13th GE somehow would have to be considered as one of THE general election that might change permanently the political landscape, in fact it might even change the social and economical landscape. Being associated with number 13 adds spice to it (for some people they really do believe in it!). I tried very hard to do this analysis by not being partisan, looking from a neutral point of view (though some might not agree). taking into accounts some of the latest developments in the Malaysian politics scenario, I have ranked the parties (looking to individual parties strength and NOT coalition) as per the stability and popularity as I see it and from the feedbacks that I garner.
1) Topping the list is definitely PAS (Parti Islam SeMalaysia), with the latest leaders chosen in their Muktamar, which is a blend of professionals and ulamas, it is proving to be a nightmare for the opposing parties,just look at all the feedback that was written on the mainstream newspapers (one couldn't help but sense the fear and insecurity feeling among them).They have slowly but surely won the hearts of the Malaysian people (especially the non Muslims), it seems that the fear that was instilled in these people on the extremism of PAS is slowly waning off. Many quarters have actually written off PAS with the demise of their likeable and widely acceptable leader Dato' Ustaz Hajji Fadzil bin Muhammad Noor in 2002, but they came back even stronger, with Tuan Guru Nik Aziz spearheading the party.Even MCLM headed by RPK is impressed by PAS that they wanna cooperate with PAS now.
2) Following closely would have to be Democratic Action Party (DAP), their story is also more or less similar with PAS, whereby the Malays or non-Chinese used to fear them, even to the stage of equating them to the Communist ideology (well that was how the image of DAP was painted and tainted by the governing coalition Party. Karpal and Lim Kit Siang was feared and hated by the rural and kampong folks (though on the other hand they were (and still are) the heroes of urban people) . With the emergence of young Turks such as Lim Guan Eng and Tony Pua (to name a few), they begin to win the hearts of the people, and the latest wave was indeed created and felt in the recent Sarawak State Election.
3) The third ranked party (in terms of support and stability) is UMNO (United Malays National Organization). they used to be top ranked party in Malaysia, but they slid down the ranking, to be honest, it got worst after Tun Mahathir stepped down, members jostling for power within UMNO got out of control (though some still blamed Tun Mahathir for creating factions, but to a certain extent, he manage to keep within his control all these factions). Now, the party is further divided in two main factions, the ultra members who would like to defend ketuanan Melayu, supported largely by the number two man in UMNO, the DPM, assisted by their official newspaper Utusan, and propagated by PERKASA (everybody knows it is indeed a platform for UMNO), the second group is the one who are supporting UMNOs numero uno, the PM, in liberalizing UMNO to accept 1Malaysia, and recently they also found a supporting platform in the form of KITA, headed by Zaid.
As for the other parties, they are not worth to mention, sooner or later, they will turn into the stage of oblivion, PKR is after all UMNO with a different front, and history have taught us that none of the parties which originate from UMNO has staying power, MCA, on the other hand, the moment they elected the morally tainted CSL as their prez, they started to dig their own grave, in fact all the sandiwara by Wee Ka Siong and Liow Tiong Lai, proves to be sandiwara, Gerakan under Koh Tsu Koon is no match at all, in fact I am not sure the number of seats they will be contesting in the next GE, an as for Penang they better forget about it. MIC, hmm...Samy Velu is gone, it looks like MIC is also gone, and the newspaper report recently on Palanivel meeting up S.Subra to strengthen his position doesn't help but will speed up the demise of MIC.
ciao............a.h.baharom
Andaian separuh masak Tuan...
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