Battle of Ijok

H. Muhammad

Ijok, a calm semi-rural town in Selangor had been in a nationwide media spotlight for almost two weeks. It became an overnight sensation in the political limelight as it was the set of the political-battleground between formidable BN and its feared political opponent PKR, for which Anwar Ibrahim is the Advisor.

The Ijok by-election had gained enormous publicity due to various strategic political reasons. But most important of all; it was the electoral battle-theatre to gauge the come back of Anwar Ibrahim in the political scene since his release in September 2004. Ijok a BN stronghold under MIC was his first direct electoral involvement - a ‘win’ for PKR would perfectly be a preliminary sign that he is back in the reckoning, a perfect chilling message to the BN.

As expected, the battle was fierce. Ijok had witnessed an intense electoral campaign that saw fierce fight between supporters from both camps. BN and PKR fought tooth and nail for every single vote until the last second. The whole BN machinery was put in swift motion. It is said that 10 yrs of back log development was put into Ijok in a week’s time with 36 million instant projects approved. Considering the fact that the General Election could be called at anytime, it was obvious that BN needed this ‘win’ badly in order to push down the rising momentum of the newly charged oppositions force psychologically.

Ijok by-election official result: BN (58.5%), PKR (40.1%).

The people of Ijok have spoken. They have made their decision and they have chosen BN (Pathiban) over PKR (Khalid Ibrahim).

BN won the battle. This much needed win gave BN the euphoria of winning which has invigorated the talk of having an early General Election. PKR lost in Ijok was definitely a major blow to Anwar Ibrahim and the oppositions in general. They had suffered a defeat that could adversely affect their performance in the coming General Election.

Post Ijok – The agony of defeat.

As anticipated by many, PKR being PKR; upon defeat they would cry ‘foul’ and resort to their cheap ‘blame-it-on-others’ game for their crushing defeat. This pathetic nauseating politically motivated stunt is the trademark of their revolting ‘denial’ in accepting the hard fact of their miserable lost.

Repulsive enough, the rest of the oppositions jumped into the bandwagon and start humming the same tune. It didn’t take long for this blame-game rhetoric to become the oppositions’ ideological stupor and it spread like an airborne transmitted diseases infecting the mind of pro-oppositions ‘intellectuals’. Rather than being objective in their analysis about PKR’s humiliating defeat, they foolishly put the fault on the voters by ‘intellectualizing’ their (voters) inability to think critically that had led to unwise voting decisions. This sheer disrespectful act is an insult to the people.

The excessive indulgence in this grimy political rhetoric by the oppositions construes their lack of integrity and significant presence as credible political organizations. Hopefully, it won't be too late for them to make a turn around and realize that they are heading the slippery slope to irrelevance.


© H. Muhammad 2007