General Election 2008 - Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi In Sibu

Our Prime Minister Pak Lah will be in Sibu tomorrow to grace the official opening of SMK St. Elizabeth's Dato Lau Cheng Kiong Centre. Thereafter, he will stay on to attend the grand welcoming cum opening banquet.

Pak Lah's visit has been perceived to be a prelude to the coming elections. This is simply part of a roadshow to drum up support for BN.

Pak Lah is not expected to come empty-handed. He will fly in with a bag of goodies to appease electorate.

In fact, since the turn of the year, Pak Lah has been giving out concessions in a move to further consolidate the foothold of National Front.

Issues like rising food prices, escalating cost of living, land issues, burning issues setting on Chinese and Indians, dilemma facing Chinese education etc are driving voters high on emotions.

On top of that, BN has to encounter tough challenge posed by the opposition parties. Anwar Ibrahim may not be eligible yet to be a candidate, but he has garnered up a sizable force to encroach on BN's base. As such, the opposition power is not to be taken too lightly.

Another mind-boggling issue to Pak Lah is the internal bickering of the component parties. Power struggle has in one way or another bogged down UMNO, MCA and SUPP, thus causing a possible split of votes in the elections to the benefit of the oppositio team.

BN would definitely not be voted out of government in the coming elections. But the under-currents would likely upset the Front in its majority of seats and votes, especially in Malays -majority constituencies. This is Pak Lah's utmost concern.

Our PM appears to be counting on Chinese and Indians to swing their votes in BN's favour to counter a possible dilution in BN's majority.

The enticement is apparently set towards this target!