Ominous Rumors On Permatang Pauh

Ominous rumors have circulating around privately to some parties, not known to many on who would be contesting against Anwar Ibrahim. Everyone is waiting with baited breath who would be the opponent coming this Saturday as it would be nomination day there.

So far, in the Barisan camp, there were constant arguments floating around on who would take on Anwar. The ex-National mosque Imam wanted to have a third crack at that seat but some others wanted a crack. But the two notable rumors circulating around, but not extensively were:

1. BN could have finally made up their minds to put Ezam Noor against his ex, Anwar. Perhaps they felt that he would be the best shot against Anwar. But interestingly, it is not Abdullah that says that Ezam will contest. No. It is instead Kalimullah Hassan (the real hidden hand of the F.F.B) in an article at the NST entitled "All Eyes on Ezam" that is telling us indirectly suggesting to us that Ezam would the opponent at Permatang Pauh.

Quote:

Ezam has vowed to do all he can to deny Anwar victory and return to active politics. He even offered himself as the Umno candidate although he pledged to support anyone picked by the party.

The by-election is by far the best platform for Ezam to convince Umno members unhappy with, and suspicious of his return to Umno, that he is sincere in fighting for the cause. His re-entry into the party has been met with distrust and even hostility. Some senior party leaders openly showed they were less than thrilled by his presence, fearing him as a Trojan horse for Anwar's comeback into the party.

Ezam, who has been travelling the country helping Umno reconnect with the Malay grassroots, has called Anwar a traitor to the Malays because of the latter's alleged willingness to do away with the New Economic Policy and compromise on Bumiputera privileges in exchange for non-Malay support. He charged that Anwar was willing to risk the country's political and economic stability to pursue his political ambitions.

Notice the style of writing above. It also implies indirectly that Ezam has to back up his claims. And since it's written in NST, Kalimullah is telling Ezam directly to shape up or ship out..well that would be a warning for Ezam really.

2. In an attempt to reduce the gap of majority - since everyone assumes that Anwar will win the by-election -, UMNO could finance an independent candidate with the sole majority to reduce the majority of votes there. Interestingly, the independent candidate might not be just a simple samaritan or an average Joe guy, but instead, there is a high probability that the independent candidate could be connected with the UMNO-splinter cell (read: Mustafa Ali's camp) in PAS.

These could be the two things that are circulating around, currently in murmurs, but we have to wait until Saturday to find out whether it comes true or not.

Alternatively, if nothing happens around the week, we might possibly see Anwar winning uncontested and then BN waits until he goes to Parliament to start whacking him from all sides. Again, it is only a possiblity.