YOURSAY ‘Umno's strongholds no longer strongholds as GST hits home.’
BN keeps Rompin, majority slashed by 40pct
Jiminy Qrikert: Rompin is Malay heartland and the Malays are sending a very clear message to their leaders on both sides of the divide. This result is alarm bells for Malay hegemony.
A good 7,000 Malays abandoned Umno as a protest against the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Their message - don't make my life any harder than it already is.
PAS retained its support. It did not gain any new voters. The message to PAS - hudud cannot feed them. PAS will always be a ‘jaguh kampung’ (village champion). They will keep their traditional support base, but all others will fall away.
That means the non-Malays will definitely abandon PAS. New young voters will not vote for PAS. And PAS will not attract the Umno supporters who abandon Umno in protest against GST.
I Wonder?: What a pity! If only PAS abandoned the hudud issue and has chosen the moderate path, it could have won this by-election.
The rakyat is in dilemma as they are sandwiched between two evils. One is the corrupted Umno that created the GST that sucks the rakyat's blood slowly, and the other the fanatical ulama in PAS who insisted on hudud that will turn this country into an Islamic state.
Both GST and hudud are bad. But hudud is worse as even many Muslims are rejecting it and consider it inhumane, barbaric, out of date and not realistic in this modern world.
CQ Muar: This was what I had wished for and predicted - that BN will win, but with a much reduced majority of less than 10,000 votes.
Even though PAS was not expected to win as the underdog, but many had hoped it will turn out this way to teach PAS a deserving lesson by losing; also resulting in embarrassment for BN for its poor showing.
And that's not all, they (PAS) are expected to be wiped out come GE14 whoever they field, if they continue to harp on hudud. With all non-Muslims and many moderate Muslims against the implementation of hudud, we can fairly anticipate their fate.
As usual, Umno will continue to play the "good guy and sympathiser" outwardly supporting them (PAS), "fanning the flame" to break up Pakatan Rakyat. Only PAS fails to see the evil ploy of Umno.
The attention is now focused on Permatang Pauh.
ABS: It’s disingenuous to say 40 percent drop was due to the low voters’ turnout. How can you make that assumption that all those who may have voted would have voted for BN? Still, 20 percent drop in support is no small drop. The message is clear.
Voice: Both sides are clear losers in this election and therefore received reduction in their votes obtained.
BN has failed the people due to GST, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), corruption and leakages and many scandals. PAS has failed the people due to their hudud, extremism and Abdul Hadi Awang’s betrayal of Pakatan spirit of struggle and co-operation.
However, PAS is lucky this time around as some of the votes lost in BN had shifted to them and this is instrumental in enabling them to maintain almost the same votes as in 2013. It looks like even Malays are rejecting hudud.
Hermit: Former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad is surely the winner in the Rompin by-election. This is the voting trend and it would be worsened if Najib Razak continues on as PM.
This is the fear which Mahathir has been barking almost every day. With Najib as the captain, the ship is sinking.
Moontime: The spinners will have a hard time convincing the rakyat how this victory is an endorsement of GST and other equally idiotic government policies.
A huge reduction in majority sends a clear signal to Najib that his days as PM are numbered. Sooner or later, perhaps before next year, we shall have a new PM.
Vijay47: We can colour and slice the results and numbers almost any way we want, with even PAS claiming some sort of victory.
However, that about 7,000 BN supporters went AWOL (absence without leave) could be attributed to the fact that BN voters were so sure of winning that they did not bother to come out. But that should have occurred in 2013 after the sweeping win in 2008.
Nevertheless, the bottom line is that Umno won with an almost 50 percent drop in the margin, denting its dreams considerably.
To everybody's gloating relief, this should give Najib and Muhyiddin Yassin some sleepless nights wondering whether Permatang Pauh would be a real nightmare.
Anticommunalist: Two points can be ascertained from this result. Umno's stronghold areas are not so strong anymore whereby the GST issue is going to be a key sore point to Malay voters.
Secondly, PAS are still far from being a close alternative to Umno for the predominantly Malay-majority constituencies.
The ulama have become more and more ultra-Malay/Muslim thinking, and while this will win them more Malay votes, it still has a long way to go if it thinks it can go solo or go with Umno in their desire to reach Putrajaya.
The reduced majority win is not an indicator of more pro-PAS but rather more anti-Umno. So any Malay/Muslim candidate from Pakatan other than PAS will do just as well.
Fair Play: It's a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea in Rompin. That could be why 6,400 didn't show up for the by-election.
Pakatan could do well to remember the same situation might occur in Permatang Puah with PAS likely to sleep with the devil and dream of forming a unity government.
Lamps: Nice, both PAS and Umno are losers in this by-election. PAS failed to win Malay support with their hudud and Umno's margin is slashed and this will demoralise them. This was Robbers vs Taliban and both lost.
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