"Anak Melayu Anak Saya, Anak Cina Anak Saya, Anak India Anak Saya…"

30 Aug 2008
Admin

One of Anwar Ibrahim's popular campaign theme at Permatang Pauh was "Anak Melayu Anak Saya, Anak Cina Anak Saya, Anak India Anak Saya…".

In many of Anwar's speeches, he articulated those words with passion and conviction, resulting in thunderous applause from all communities. Anwar has been consistent in delivering this message when giving speeches in Permatang Pauh, regardless of whether it is a Malay-dominated or non-Malay dominated area. On the other hand, UMNO's speeches were filled with racist remarks and sexual allegations. Such extreme negativities summed up the ruling party's five decades of rule.

To summarise some of the comments of bloggers, here are the main reasons for UMNO's demise at Permatang Pauh:

1) Incredibly racist style of campaigning notably
- scaring the Malays that Anwar would sell out their rights and turn Malaysia into another Singapore; playing a divide-and-rule game by portraying Arif Shah as a pro-Chinese candidate on one hand, while attacking Anwar as a Malay traitor,
- a leaflet was circulated calling on the Malays to reject the DAP-led government in Penang, with an image of a pig’s head placed next to the heads of Kit Siang and Karpal,
- a day before the by-election, Umno division chief Ahmad Ismail spoke at a ceramah and called Chinese pendatang (immigrants) and added that “as the Chinese were only immigrants it was impossible to achieve equal rights amongst races”,
- offering scrap metal dealership to Indian constituents; such a degrading gesture only serves to reinforce Indian society's view of how they rank in the scheme of things,
- using Lee Chong Wei as an example that the government does not discriminate against the Chinese in sport; insulting the intelligence of the Chinese community

2) Bringing in so called big guns that are disliked by the people like Wira Ali Rustam, Khairy and Samy Velu.

3) Questionable coincidences
- Anwar being charged shortly after he announces his decision to contest,
- Saiful swearing on the Quran one day before nomination,
(the above coincidences are insulting the intelligence of the public)

4) Nallakaruppan & Ezam - one bragged he has 5 recordings and the other has 6 boxes full of evidence, neither produced any evidence but they went ahead with their smear campaign against Anwar anyway,

5) Abuse of religion and mass media
- the sodomy smear campaign caused a backlash from the voters ; most people are disgusted with UMNO's abuse of primetime TV to telecast such obscenities,
- not forgeting the footage was also played over and over again at Permatang Pauh during UMNO ceramahs, with well-known personalities taking distasteful potshots and challenging Anwar to swear on the Quran although he has stated time and again his reason for not doing so. This was done despite opinion polls from merdeka center clearly indicating that most people did not believe the allegations.

6) Offering development funds if they win - blatant bribery (or threat) to the public simply don't work anymore,

7) Campaign drive - While Anwar campaigned on grounds of justice, equality and an end to corrupt practices, the BN campaign was largely seen as a “smear Anwar campaign”.

Fast facts of Anwar's Permatang Pauh campaign:
1) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has already made history by being the first Malay politician to ever actually win more political support through an explicitly non-racial platform.
2) He publicly and repeatedly proclaimed that his commitment is to the sovereignty of the people — hence "ketuanan rakyat".