The Battle of Red Cliffs...er, Permatang Pauh. part 2

Arif Shah Omar Shah.- AVE CAESAR! MORITURI TE SALUTAMUS- HAIL CAESAR! WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE SALUTE YOU.

Now, that’s the real salute for you. We have chosen a sitting ADUN. It’s very rare for UMNO to field a candidate who stands simultaneously for both a state and a parliamentary seat. Unless of course it’s in Kelantan, where UMNO actually lacks credible candidates to take on the PAS mullahs.

An exception is the Muadzam Shah ADUN Dato Maznah Mazlan who was appointed a senator and was subsequently appointed a deputy minister. And that is sending chills to Jamaludin Jarjis who’s still claiming he is the hardest working MP. Who else has worked from earth to the heavens? Good God!.

The choice of ASOS. What does that tell us? It tells us that UMNO really has no one candidate whom they think stands a rat’s ass of a chance to dent Anwar. Or it can also mean, ASOS is the only person brave enough to offer himself because he already has a seat. Hello brother- how about vacating your state seat?

Also its another indication in the shallowness of Najib’s thinking. He can’t cast his eyes wide enough to survey the available talent in UMNO. He is forced to look within the confines of the circle he knows- the sycophants and those who grovel and kiss his hands. Those who have businesses with him or are connected to those who did businesses with him. He must choose relatives of financial bootleggers and the scum in UMNO.

Must he choose a person related to him in howsoever way? ASOS’s brother is the fugitive Amin Shah Omar Shah whose PSC industries was given the contract to build patrol vessels worth RM24 billion. By the way, this was the ‘sacred cow’ denounced vehemently by Shabery Cheek in a previous UMNO General Assembly. Shabery’s usage of that term endeared him to Pak Lah and made the PM noticed this one time bag carrier of Tengku Razaleigh. Come come now Shabery- you are a minister now. Please urge Pak Lah to take action.

Maybe its true that ASOS is the best candidate to contest against Anwar. He may have better chances to prevent a free fall of UMNO’s support in Penang. The others may very well fall into the category of candidates who may cause UMNO to lose its deposit. Such a loss would be even more disastrous.

Therefore it’s better to offer a more credible candidate which has a better chance to save UMNO’s credibility. This is Li Dai Tao Jiang stratagem- sacrifice the plum tree for the peach tree. UMNO of course is the peach tree.

Tian Ji the military commander of Qi often raced and bet on horses with his king. He seems to be losing always by a hair’s margin. And so the famed Sun Tzu devised a plan. He suggested to Tian Ji to engage the king in the best of three races. Tian Ji then proceeded to place the weakest horse in the first race, the second strongest horse in the second race and the best horse in the third race. Tian Ji of course lost the first race but won the other two races. He became the overall winner sacrificing only the first race.

Hence even if ASOS loses but managed to reduce brother Anwar’s majority, UMNO’s prestige is at least salvaged.

Sigh…this must be the effect of reading romance of three kingdoms comics. Can’t read or speak Chinese but can understand pictures.