Indians back in BN, really?

What's suave Federal Territory and Urban Wellbeing Minister Raja Nong Chik doing with political operative Bangsar Bala?

COMMENT

Barisan Nasional must be really desperate. They have resorted to reading tea leaves and in some places, chicken entrails. Some whispers here and there are taken and read as signifying real and substantial progress.

Hence for example, some casual and insouciant intimation that Indians are coming back to support BN is treated as orgasmic news.

What are we to make of these innocuous remarks?  Should they be taken seriously?

The Indians are coming back into the fold of BN. Yes indeed, there are so many of them.

The Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) says it has one million members. That’s the figure from the president M Kayveas’ faction. T. Murugiah (formerly with PPP) said he commanded 600,000 members.
The MIC says, they have two million Indians. The Indian Progressive Front ( MG Pandithan’s party) says it has another 700,000.

Then we have the number claimed by the newly minted Senator KS Nallakarupan.
Geez! I am thinking, these parties must have counted those Malaysian Indians still in the womb.
Otherwise, how do you account for so many of them?

Bala, the operative

These encouraging numbers must have in turn encouraged and motivated thamby Najib (Tun Razak) to participate as a devotee in this year’s Thaipussam

This was also the information passed on by Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Raja Nong Chik to former economic advisor Tun Daim Zainudin, who attended a overtly political function organised by the Lembah Pantai Umno last month.

And where does Raja Nong Chik get his source of information?

From Bangsar Bala – friend to RPK (Raja Petra Kamarudin) and resident politician at Plan B, in Bangsar village.

Yes indeed – the same Bala who mobilized thousands of Indians to press palms with Anwar Ibrahim when he came over to Brickfields the other day.

The same Bala who organized a large number of Indian NGOs to meet Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.
I know Mr Bala personally and am aware of his capabilities as a political operative.

The sting of my mention of  Bala isn’t Bala, but Raja Nong Chik.

Raja Nong Chik  doesn’t fraternize with people like Bala, and when given casual assurance that the Indians are back with BN, is easily over enthused.

His exuberance leads him to generalise on the thinking of Malaysian Indians.

Smart move

Anecdotal evidence on the other hand indicates that Malaysian Indians are not for BN.
But we’ll let the illusion permeate the BN camp.

If Raja Nong Chik contests in Lembah Pantai, that will be his Waterloo. As for the smart cookie Bala, he is hedging his bets.

And what Bala says, is taken as significant by Raja Nong Chik and surprisingly by Daim.

Personally I found it odd, the slippage on the part of Daim. Usually he takes statements and information as preliminary ‘noises’.

He will then investigate further by sending out the Baker Street Boys or the Baker Street Irregulars like Sherlock Holmes did.

It was unusual for Daim to accept what Raja Nong Chik tells him.

Daim, I thought, must be either be fatigued or looking out for his business interest that can be affected by the decisions of the FT minister.

It was a smart move I thought for Raja Nong Chik to bring on Daim, a real firepower.

Daim sought after

It can serve as an endorsement from the elusive Daim, whom many had discounted prior to the 2008 elections. In those days,  no one batted an eye lid about what Daim said.

Indeed many said he was a spent force and one past-shelf-life politician.

In 2008, Daim cautioned the government that it would lose five states. Umno people, in return lambasted him for saying those things.

The elections came and BN lost five states and its seats in Wilayah Persekutuan were almost decimated.
After that, people sit upright and at attention whenever Daim speaks.

Indeed, people are now desirous at wanting Daim to say something energizing about BN.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman and has now joined DAP.