Sweeping victory in FT
PETALING JAYA: Expected or not, Pakatan Harapan (PH) swept 11 of the 12 Federal Territory parliamentary seats in the 14th general election (GE14).
From Fahmi Fadzil winning the Lembah Pantai seat for PH to Datin Paduka Tan Yee Kew defeating MCA’s Federal Territory chief Yew Teong Look, the biggest story of all surely is the victory of 22-year-old Batu independent candidate, P. Prabakaran, who made history as the youngest candidate ever to contest and win in a general election in Malaysia.
Former Batu MP Tian Chua, who was disqualified from contesting on nomination day, had announced Prabakaran as the victor in the Kuala Lumpur seat, defeating Barisan National’s (BN) Datuk Dr Dominic Lau.
Despite being endorsed by Tian Chua, Prabakaran is keeping mum as to whether he will join PH or remain an independent MP.
Other seats PH won were by Lim Lip Eng (Kepong), Hannah Yeoh (Segambut), Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (Setiawangsa), Rina Mohd Harun (Titiwangsa), Fong Kui Lun (Bukit Bintang), Teresa Kok (Seputeh), Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar (Bandar Tun Razak) and Tan Kok Wai (Cheras).
BN candidate Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor escaped the PH onslaught when he retained the Putrajaya parliamentary seat with a majority of 3,372 votes.
In GE13, Pakatan Rakyat took nine of the 12 seats up for grabs, with Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani winning the Titiwangsa seat. He was second finance minister in the previous Cabinet.
Of course, the question being asked is why a popular leader like Johari was also swept away in GE14.
One reason could be that urbanites are more well informed and are fed up with the increased cost of living.
Another reason is the goods and services tax (GST), which has become a burden to the people.
PH’s promise to abolish GST hit the right note with the rakyat.
However, the icing on the cake, and without doubt a major factor for PH’s strong showing, is Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the 1MDB scandal.
Another factor that worked in PH’s favour is the fact that they were constantly targeted during the election campaign, which may have made people realise they had enough and a change was needed.