Of battle ready... and early casualties

Are you ready to do battle? Are you ready to change? Are you ready to vote? I am...Yes, I was wrong when making choices. PRU 13 will be another choice, either Change or forever playing submissive to those that we voted in.

At first glace, everything seems the same. Utusan and TV3 remains the same, providing all the one-sided news to the extent that it is better to ignore them. Of late, the same sickness is creeping into Astro. Unfortunately. Astro forgets that the consumers pay for their service and as such I am deliberating whether to terminate the service or follow their antics in GE 13 runup. Fortunately, Astro has many channels and I opted to go channel hunting over listening (or viewing) the countless 1ads.

BN, in anticipating fiercer GE 13 competition, chose to "retire" almost 30% of their MPs' including Rais Yatim, Ng Yen Yen, Mohamed Nor Yaakob. Not only that, BN is pushing Ghani Othman to face Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah reminiscent of Lim Kit Siang-Lim Chong Eu battle royale which ultimately leads to Chong Eu's retirement from politics.

This time around, BN is pitting Ghani against Lim Kit Siang, banking on popular beliefs that the Malays will not desert Ghani whilst MCA deliver Chinese votes to Ghani to put Lim Kit Siang and PR at bay. Will it works? Realistically, it might not work as Ghani has stepped on too many feet including the orang asal in his quest to build Iskandar. If 85% of the Chinese voters are die-hard PR voters, Lim Kit Siang may send Ghani into "retirement" to the delight of his detractors. Even if Lim Kit Siang lose, so what? Losing is norm to this DAP stalwart but this time around, it will be another state ketua menteri @ Menteri Besar waiting to be scalped.

How desperate in BN aka UMNO? I will say pretty pretty scared of losing power. How scared? 1MPM6 is willing to bent backwards to accomodate Ong Tee Keat in Pandan, despite MCA's recommendations not to include Ong Tee Keat in the candidate list. As a result, it is a major slap in the face for Chua Soil Lek, leading him to indicate that he is not a candidate in GE 13. Shame, shame on you Chua Soil Lek for surrendering before even entering the circle!

1MPM6 Najib is even accomodating to Mahathir's wishlist and naming Ibrahim Ali as the BN-sponsored candidate for Pasir Mas. 1MPM6 Najib maybe indebted to Mahathir but naming Ibrahim Ali as BN sponsored candidate in Pasir Mas, Kelantan is like putting a death nail to BN's coffin as far as taking over Kelantan. Reason? Kelantanese has still not forgiven Ibrahim Ali for abandoning Tok Guru Nik Aziz when he chose to switch camp and becoming BN-friendly after all the help and support he received from PAS especially after Tok Guru's intervention.

1MPM6 Najib may not admit it but he is really facing defeat. The only way for him to overcome the sure-thing defeat is by adapting Mahathir's ruthless tactics and to use all the tricks in Mahathir's bag to secure BN wins. Najib is not known as a fighter and he is not known as a survivor either. The way Najib is making moves are actually mirrors that of Mahathir. In short, Najib is still the lallang swaying to Mahathir's music.

Tomorrow will be better when the full BN list is known. So far, Shahrizat and few UMNO second echelon leaders fails to make the cut. I am more interested to know the fate of 3 kataks from Perak, Zul Noordin, Gobala and Zahrain. If BN accomodates to these kataks, then it can be confirmed that BN is really, really desperate.

Another development should be from Sabah, Sarawak. Let's see who is in BN's 30% drop list. Will they be really dropped or will they be actually switched from parliament to state seats and vice versa. Afterall, BN is known for making up numbers when in actuality, it is still the same.

Despite BN's troubles, PR is not raking up advantages too. PSM's foolhardiness of planning to go for 11 seats is akin to "marahkan nyamuk, kelambu dibakar". PSM should be street wise and understand as well as accept that their common enemy is BN, not PR allies. This is the time for sacrifice and if PSM is not willing to sacrife for the rakyat's good, then PSM better think of a better acronym to "Parti Sosialis Malaysia".

PKR's lukewarm solution to Chegu bard is wanting. How can PKR's top brass place Bard in Penang when his base in Negeri Sembilan? I have said before that PKR NS spells trouble, I will repeat - PKR NS is trouble. And Anwar Ibrahim is blinded to believe everything said and done by his NS sidekick.

A friend from Sg Petani, an UMNO member confessed that it is better for the country to be managed by PR as BN is too rotten for fast relief. Let PR manage the next 2 terms and if they falls into BN sickness of corruption, cronyism, then Malaysia will vote them out as how we are voting BN out in GE 13.

The question is - Are you with me?

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are...