Nizar won with 2,789 vote majority

Ousted Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin won the Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat, beating Barisan Nasional candidate Ismail Saffian and independent Kamarul Rami-zu Idris.


The 52-year-old garnered 21,860 votes against Ismail's 19,071 while Kamarul only managed to secure 62 votes and lost his deposit.

Nizar's 2,789-vote majority over Ismail is almost double the majority obtained by former Pas Member of Parliament, the late Roslan Shah-rom, in last year's general election.

Roslan defeated BN candidate and Umno treasurer Datuk Seri Azim Zabidi with a 1,566-vote majority. The opposition managed to get 622 more votes compared with the 18,449 votes it secured in 2008 general election.

PAS, through Nizar, who was said to have banked on sympathy votes after the Barisan takeover of the state, improved its vote count by 1,845 compared with the general election votes.

Turnout was 75.1% or 41,626 of the total 55,562 registered voters, slightly higher than the 72.65% in 2008.

Nizar - Political Chameleon in Bukit Gantang

One could argue that as long as goods have been transported by sea, there have been pirates, likewise politics in Bukit Gantang by-election.


In this time heroic villains raised to fame in politics, the most notorious and condemned pirates figures like Captain Anwar Ibrahim and the most significant crew member, Nizar came into the picture.

Anwar Ibrahim or Nizar?

There once was a mythical time when brave and dangerous political pirates sailed the political seas in search of both fortune and fame, but the final destination was the political gallows. It is an extraordinarily good example for those leaning towards the tempting rewards of piracy.


It is ironic that radical egalitarianism was practiced on many pirate politicians but overtly with criminally irresponsible especially Anwar Ibrahim and Nizar in Bukit Gantang by-election.

Together with Anwar, Nizar not only plays the part of political chameleon but in fact, both are political chameleon. Nizar gushes that he is an impressive man of immense grace and character who represents Perak's future, not it’s past.

The former Perak Menteri Besar is feted by Anwar Ibrahim as the best thing in years to have happened to Malaysia's democratic transition. His record in power is mixed: full of rhetoric, covert intentions to uphold the political free speech, but lacking many practical achievements.

chameleon

From 999 years of land titles to Toyota Cambry, Nizar has sidled up to the middle of the road thus obscuring or blurring the Perakian.

Isn’t its irony that Altantuya Shaariibuu, the high profile case is still in the court, and by exploiting it is threatening to lay contempt of court charges?

By far, they have distributed a lot of Altantuya Shaariibuu, Anwar and Nizars’ masks in order for people wear masks to protests to parody Barisan Nasional, a politician or Malaysian figure.

In fact, it would not be surprising to see the pirates wearing the mask of Altantuya Shaariibuu, Anwar and Nizar. But what is surprising is that why they wear and appear in Bukit Gantang by-election?

Whether that’s true or not, it is damned effective politics.