Why is UMNO running scared?

By Haris Ibrahim,

Day before yesterday, we attended a ceramah in Trong.

My estimate of the crowd : about 2,000 - 2,500.

Mostly Malay, and, it seemed, diehard PAS supporters.

We’d actually gone there, having learnt that Tok Guru Nik Aziz was due to speak there, together with Nizar and speaker Sivakumar.

And Nik Aziz didn’t disappoint.

As he did in Kuala Terengganu, he emphasised again that we are all, Malay, Chinese, Indian, the Orang Asli, all of us, the progeny of Adam.

There was no basis in Islam to make distinction between us based on our ethnicity, he stressed.

Really, you can’t help but forgive this man for some of his eccentric utterances in the past when he comes out with decrees like this.

However, the speaker who left me momentarily speechless was someone I had not even heard of until last night.

Surianarayanan is the chairman of the Perak Kelab Penyokong PAS.

He informed the audience, in a most laid back style, that he had gone to the ground to assess the support level for Nizar from the non-Malay voters of Bukit Gantang.

The Chinese support level, he said, was strong, hovering at about 80%.

He then apologised that the Indian level of support was lower, at about 75%.

What he then revealed stunned me.

Nationwide, he said, the Kelab Penyokong PAS had about 83,000 members.

In Perak, the members numbered a little over 18,300.

All non- Malay and non-Muslim.

Hen then proceeded to invite any UMNO, MIC or MCA member in the audience to ‘taubat’ and to join any one of the Pakatan parties.

Why?

Suria put it this way, in fluent Malay, which I have attempted to translate below :

“All that is good is from God; the evil that we see in our land is all wrought by UMNO”.

The crowd roared their approval.

When I spoke to him later, he explained that the Perak chapter of the Kelab started around 2007 and the membership had grown steadily.

He also emphasised that he was confident that the support from the non-Malay community would be reflected in the pattern of voting on polling day on Tuesday.

5 years ago, this would have been unheard of.

Then, even if non-Malay voters we so thoroughly disenchanted with the BN candidate, it seemed unthinkable for them to give their vote instead to a PAS candidate.

Hell, if you’d told me 2 years ago that I’d be throwing my weight behind a PAS candidate in the future, I’d have said you were talking silly.

Yet, I just shook Nizar’s hand a little while ago, after listening to him speak, and wished him all the best.

It once used to be that PAS drove voters into the arms of BN, however much they despised the latter.

Things have changed.

It’s UMNO, now, that’s sending the non-Malays in droves into the welcoming arms of PAS.

And this will translate into votes on 7th April.