Why WP takes it as two, not three, cheers! (And some political tidbits.)

Just as ST's Chua Mui Hoong wrote a thoughtful analysis, yesterday, of the PAP in the aftermath of the Punggol East by-election, ST's Kor Kian Beng penned an equally solid perspective today. training his sights on the WP after last Saturday's results:

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Short takes from the hustings:

In terms of logic, Mr Lee's quoted comment above falls into this category...

* Dr Koh did not have enough time to enable him to connect with people
* If Dr Koh had had enough time, he would have won the by-election.

Hmm, but it is the PM who determines the duration of the hustings, no?

As for this snapshot above, the observation came straight from the horse's mouth, ie, a PAP MP...

* On the night of the WP's last rally, the PAP sent out activists to suss out the mood on the ground
* They went to several blocks and found that "the people that they met were very supportive"
* "But of course only the PAP supporters were at home; the rest were at the rally," said the MP!

Hmm, while Mr Lee did use the term "fix them (the WP)" in 2006, I vaguely recall that he later explained it was a poor choice of words and that he did not mean "to fix" as in "to undermine".

Wah lau, voters like Madam Lim are really scary... the "shopping voter" who knows the price of her vote but not its value.

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Finally, Malaysian political jokes are always funnier, if not downright "blue", as is the case with this one (sent by CC):

Upon his rise to premiership, Najib decides that the future lies with the younger generation. So he introduces "PR1MA" or 'Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia" for the "Young Profession- als" earning Rm3000/- or more to buy houses in the Rm250,000/ range. The older generation, who have slogged in the past to help build the nation, raised an outcry. Najib then introduced "BR1M" or 'Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia', giving Rm500/- handouts to all the Rakyat earning less than Rm3000/ per month. The Sundry Shop Owners raise their disapproval, citing that, with so many 'hypermarkets' -- i.e. TESCO, GIANT, CARREFOUR etc -- sprouting all over the country, their 'livelihood' is now threatened. So with the assistance from MYDIN, he introduced"KR1M" or 'Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia', to alleviate the concerns of the 'Sundry Shop Owners'. This upset the taxi drivers, who highlighted their plight of having so many cronies holding 'Taxi Permits'. And their ineligibility to own their own taxis. To pacify this group, Najib handed out Rm520/- 'Tyre Vouchers' for all taxi drivers to buy new tyres for their vehicles. And he called this scheme "TER1MA" or 'Teksi Rakyat 1Malaysia'. The Opposition parties are furious as the money funding these schemes are being churned out from the 'hard-earned' tax dollars of the Rakyat. So they proposed to Najib a scheme (Under BERSIH's 9-point demands). And they challenged him to implement this before the next General Election. They called this scheme "Perubahan Untuk Kerajaan 1Malaysia", or in short...

" PUK1MA "