From Kl To Alor Setar Anwar Seeks To Upend Sanusi Wave In Kedah Blitz

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STATE POLLS | While Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor suffered a 2-3 defeat in a friendly football match at the Darul Aman stadium in Alor Setar last night, just 6.5km away, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was whipping up support to turn the tide against the Kedah caretaker menteri besar come Aug 12.
Some 3,000 supporters and curious onlookers of all races swarmed the ceramah and gave the premier a rock star’s welcome on his third stop in the northern state.
It was a scene that repeated itself throughout the evening.
The Pakatan Harapan chairperson’s campaign blitz was a much-needed shot in the arm for Harapan-BN’s Kedah campaign, which lacked a figure popular enough to match Sanusi.
Anwar’s charm offensive began in Sanusi’s own backyard, flying in on a government helicopter to Felda Teloi Timur which is part of the Kedah PN chief’s Jeneri state seat.
Some 1,500 people - some of whom were ferried in by about 20 buses - had gathered in the settlement for a Felda carnival, and to hear what the premier had to say to them.
When Anwar’s helicopter approached, many children, who could not hold in their excitement, made a beeline to the nearby field to witness the premier landing at 5.53pm.
The children then rushed to greet Anwar, who was clad in a light blue baju Melayu and songkok, for a photo opportunity.
Even though his personnel offered him a ride to the tent where he would make his speech, the 75-year-old premier chose to take a 4-minute stroll, greeting settlers of all ages along his way.
On paper, the Felda Teloi Timur district was not Harapan-BN friendly as 58 percent of voters there cast their ballots for PN in the 15th general election.
However, it is also one of four polling districts where the older voters sided with Harapan-BN (72.5 percent).
Perhaps cognizant of this, Anwar’s speech at the carnival was mostly serious - addressing bread and butter issues in Felda settlements and emphasising his commitment to monitor and resolve them.
Anwar assured that he was keeping Felda under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department until the main issues faced by the agency and its settlers were resolved, before handing it over to a different ministry.
“I don’t want to resolve issues in bits and pieces, I have given the full mandate to the new Felda chairperson (Ahmad) Shabery Cheek and I know he is serious about resolving them.
“I have told him to strongly push ahead and if there are problems, let me know. Believe that I will do my best to bring about these changes,” he told the crowd.
Anwar also addressed the issue of scrap rubber prices - a major source of income for folks in Jeneri and the larger Sik area - saying he had raised the floor prices of scrap rubber from RM2.50 to RM2.70 during the tabling of the Madani national budget.
However, he mentioned that he couldn’t make any new announcements on the market price of scrap rubber to avoid conflict with the MACC and Election Commission during the campaign period.
Previously, several Sik rubber tappers lamented prices of scrap rubber decreasing rapidly, with recent prices going to as low as RM2.25.
Sanusi, in response to their woes, had said that the Kedah state government had no control over the prices of the commodity as it was determined by agencies under the federal government.
Meanwhile, during his Felda speech, Anwar also ran through a list of his achievements in helping the settlers over the past eight months.
It ranges from waiving RM8.3 billion of Felda settlers’ debts, to providing better internet access, repairing dilapidated schools as well as installing street lights in the settlements.
“And how many months have we taken to resolve them? Eight months. Now just imagine if we governed for five years,” he said.
The Felda waiver has been a matter of dispute between Anwar and former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin who had claimed it was the latter that signed off the waiver in 2021.
Anwar also took veiled jabs at Sanusi, saying the latter had three years to fix Felda settlers’ woes but to no avail.
Bidding farewell to the settlers at around 7.20pm, Anwar then jetted off to Jitra - some 90km away - for a Harapan-BN unity event which was attended by an estimated 500 people.
The Jitra seat is currently held by Pejuang president Mukhriz Mahathir, who is not contesting in the election.
Appearing before the public in a change of outfit - a white button-up shirt paired with navy blue trousers - Anwar’s demeanour remained serious at the Jitra event.
But that changed later.
Despite his packed schedule which began at 10am in Kuala Lumpur, the PKR president was lively and enthusiastic when rolled into his third event stop in Alor Setar.
He took a more light-hearted approach when addressing the crowd, compared to his previous events, cracking jokes on occasion much to the amusement of the enthusiastic crowd of 3,000.
He also appealed to the Chinese folks present in the audience by using Mandarin phrases, as well as talking about how the dialect is a regional economic language.
In his speech, held outdoors in the Alor Mengkudu constituency, he attempted to convince the audience of the BN-Harapan cooperation by donning a blue and red coloured vest - signifying the official colours of both coalitions.
Anwar’s upbeat energy continued when he arrived at the last leg of his tour in Kupang, where an estimated 5,000-strong crowd had been waiting for him.
The night market, where the ceramah was held, is accessible to voters from several seats, namely Kupang, Kuala Ketil and those living near the south side of Jeneri and Belantek.
All these seats had a majority of 60 percent and above of voters supporting PN during GE15.
But that didn’t stop Anwar from getting thunderous applause and cheers from the crowd despite it being almost midnight.
While Anwar’s manner of speech and presentation differed between his first two campaign stops and the latter two, much of his talking points remained constant.
This included an emphasis on plans to develop Kedah’s economy.
Pointing out that Kedah is among the poorest states in the country, Anwar said immediate measures – in the likes of attracting investments - must be done to improve the people’s livelihood.
This included investments in the Kulim Hi-Tech Park (KHTP) which the premier claimed was the result of his work, namely the €5 billion (RM24.9 billion) investment by Infineon Technologies AG in Kulim over the next five years.
He asserted that the additional investment reflected the German technology giant’s confidence in the stability of the coalition government.
Staking a claim to investments brought to the KHTP, which was established in 1999, however, will more than likely be another point of contention between Anwar and Sanusi.
In May last year, Sanusi announced that the KHTP had successfully secured RM20 billion in investments in the first five months of last year, well surpassing the RM10 billion annual investments target for the whole state of Kedah in the same year.
Last month, Sanusi also said that the state had received committed investment amounting to RM5 billion in the first quarter of this year, recording total investment exceeding the target of RM10 billion per year for the previous two years in a row as a result of the confidence of the industry community.
Continuous salvo to break ‘Sanusi wave’
The prime minister and the caretaker menteri besar have an adversarial relationship, with the latter claiming to have been sidelined and oppressed by the former.
Sanusi has taken to mocking Anwar’s famous arm-raise pose, while taking potshots throughout the campaign pose.
Caretaker Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md NorYesterday was Anwar’s chance to hit the PN election director back on home ground.
In his speeches, Anwar chastised Sanusi and told the latter to mind his words as it has proven to be a bane since he had been slapped with two charges of sedition.
Both charges accused Sanusi of uttering words that had the tendency to incite disloyalty against a ruler.
“You (Sanusi) go against the royalty, you hurl curse words (maki) at me every day. That’s okay for now.
“You go against the royalty, you go to court, then you get imprisoned, my cell from last time is still empty,” he said at the Jelajah Perpaduan Madani ceramah at the Kupang night market, eliciting roaring laughs from the crowd.
It was a message that struck a chord with Mad Daud Abdul Rahman, who told Malaysiakini after the ceramah ended at midnight that he is a “new supporter” of Harapan-BN.
The 59-year-old tahfiz operator in Kupang, who donned a kopiah and jubah, divulged that he switched allegiance to support Harapan-BN after last year’s general election.
“I was a staunch supporter of PAS. But now, I have lost confidence in PN and PAS. I am practising mature politics.
“I have read about the court and corruption cases. When they (PN leaders) were in power in terms of finance and management, they did the wrong thing,” he said.
Mad Daud Abdul RahmanMuhyiddin, who is also PN chairperson, is on trial for four abuse of power charges and three money laundering counts involving over RM232 million.
The charges relate to the Jana Wibawa programme, which was introduced in 2020 when Muhyiddin helmed the government, ostensibly to help bumiputera businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other PN leaders have also been charged with corruption involving the Muhyiddin-era Jana Wibawa programme, including former Bersatu information chief Wan Saiful Wan Jan and its Segambut deputy chief Adam Radlan Adam.
Whether or not Anwar’s campaign stop in Kedah can bolster further support for Harapan-BN to capture the state from PN remains to be seen.
In the meantime, Anwar will continue to campaign in other states.
Anwar will be in Penang today for a series of programmes with voters of all races and all walks of life.
Although Penang is considered a “safe deposit state” for DAP, Penang DAP secretary Lim Hui Ying had claimed that a significant number of Chinese voters could cast their ballots for Perikatan Nasional, not turn up on polling day or cast spoilt votes. - Mkini

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