Rakyat di Bagan Pinang bodoh?

Blame the rakyat, YBs. After so many by-election victories, you don't expect the Pakatan Rakyat camp to be graceful in the Bagan Pinang defeat. But I expected the leaders to be retrospect, to also look at themselves for flaws.

Anwar Ibrahim, in his blog, reproduced Azmin Ali's posting here which unabashedly, and quite unfairly, blamed the voters for electing Isa Samad. So bitter was Azmin that he suggested that there was now no need for Umno to reform the party as its candidate at Bagan Pinang was clearly the choice of the rakyat despite his "corrupt past" (Isa was found guilty of money politics by Umno when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was president).

Azmin wrote:

"UMNO perlu membuat persiapan awal untuk menghadapi Pilihan Raya Umum ke 13 dengan menonjolkan barisan calon-calon UMNO di kalangan perasuah kerana itulah cita rasa rakyat Malaysia."

Blogging from New York, YB Zul could not believe that the people of Bagan Pinang had voted for Isa. In his posting here, he lamented:

"Saya melihat ini dengan suatu perasaan yang gementar, apa dah jadi dengan masyarakat Malaysia. Bagaimana kita boleh menjadi toleran kepada sang koruptor, dan membenamkan Hang Jebat. Apakah ini petanda masyarakat Malaysia sudah menjadi masyarakat yang rosak, atau apakah UMNo/Be End sedang mempercepatkan proses menalqinkan diri mereka."

Kit Siang hints at foul play by Umno ("What was unexpected was Isa’s 8,013-vote and thumping majority of 5,435 votes sweeping all the eight voting streams – the result of gross abuses of power, money politics as well as the postal ballot chicanery") but the veteran is probably the only one brave enough to ask the Pakatan Rakyat leaders to also look within:

"With the rout in Bagan Pinang, Pakatan Rakyat must go back to the drawing board and address the many issues bedevilling the coalition but which had been swept under the carpet, aggravating public concerns about its unity, discipline, cohesion, viability and sustainability as the alternative of the Barisan Nasional for federal power in Putrajaya.

"For a start, Pakatan Rakyat leaders must stop being shy about the need to demonstrate discipline and common sense of purpose at all levels of Pakatan Rakyat as well as have the courage to admit and to resolve any crisis of confidence undermining public support for the coalition."