A lesson from Tenang

I was at a high-powered buka puasa function yesterday evening.

Normally I would try to avoid going to such an event.

I prefer to buka puasa at home as it's easier and more comfortable  to do the necessary after that.

But yesterday, my boss asked me to attend the function, so I went lah.

Bumped into two people that I know from the PM's office.

We knew each other from back then when DS Najib Razak was still the deputy prime minister.

I consider one of them as a dear friend.

Not seen them for more than a year, but they were still very nice to me as usual.

The one who is my friend even joked that he wanted to give me RM20k, in reference to an allegation by someone that I'm a paid DAP cybertrooper.

I had a good laugh at that.

Was seated with a group of bloggers who just came back from Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar.

They were quiet friendly even though they didn't know me.

I asked them how were things at the two by-elections.

They said BN will most likely win in Sungai Besar but they were worried about Kuala Kangsar.

"The machineries are not working well there. And there is also the candidate problem," one of them said.

The BN candidate is Datin Mastura Mohd Yazid, who is the widow of the late former MP Datuk Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad.

The blogger added that there was also the problem of "peruntukan tak turun kebawah", in reference to allowances for party workers.

That's not good, I told myself.

But these are all problems perceived by the bloggers.

For me, they may not have the complete picture of things because they were there for just one or two days.

That's for me was not good enough to conclude that things were bad for BN in Kuala Kangsar.

I had seen this before.

Back in January 2011, when I was helping Johor BN at the Tenang by-election, a group of pro-Umno bloggers from KL turned up in the midst of campaigning.

I was not yet a blogger at that time.

I remember getting frustrated upon reading their postings several days later.

They basically wrote that BN was in trouble because their observation during the one day stop-over in Labis, which was the town centre of the constituency, indicated that the campaigning at that by-election was poorly handled.

At that time I was already camping in Labis for the past two weeks and I had seen how the campaigning was carried out.

Until now, I have not yet see a better coordinated campaign by BN during a by-election than the one in Tenang.

And I had been to quite a number of by-elections to make the comparison.

It was a very efficient no frill campaign which cost was just a fraction of that utilised for other by-elections.

BN was led by then Johor MB TS Abdul Ghani Othman at the Tenang by-election 

One of these days I will write what I remember of the by-election in details.

BN won with a significantly increased majority after a memorable polling day, marked by a major flood in the constituency.

You can read more about it here,

Tenang by-election

It's therefore important to double check reports with those who are really on the ground to get the real picture.

It's more tedious, but in matters such as election strategy, it's better to be thorough than sorry.

Intelligence gathering must come from the ground and there's no two ways about it.

Back to the buka puasa thing, I actually didn't eat very much at the function.

I'm always uncomfortable at such functions to eat properly

When I reached home, I fixed myself some lempeng and eat it with sambal sardine.

Had that for sahur too.