Election fever in Penang went up several notches last night as Barisan Nasional (BN) top guns gathered on the island to push for votes in the wake of an anticipated swing toward the opposition.

penang bn ceramah 060308 bn candidates The four-hour rally, which attracted some 3,500 people, saw an appearance by BN chief Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, MCA president Ong Ka Ting, Gerakan adviser Dr Lim Keng Yaik and acting party president Dr Koh Tsu Koon.

The event was a clear display of how close the polls outcome is likely to be in Penang. All the speakers unleashed attacks on opposition figures Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Guan Eng, who seem to have made inroads after close to two weeks of campaigning.

Leading the charge was Abdullah, who picked on Anwar - the PKR de facto leader - even though he had declared at the onset of his speech that it is no longer important to talk about him.

“I don’t need to talk about Anwar, he is not important to me, he is not important to Umno. He doesn’t have friends in Umno because he fights against the party.

“The party can’t accept him back, no way! We have enough leaders, no need to wait for him to come back,” he thundered to a round of applause.

bn gathering at penang rifle range 04 Abdullah said that, since Anwar is not being accepted, the latter has started to “look for friends” in the opposition parties. He reiterated Anwar (photo) has merely been making irresponsible “empty promises” to voters.

BN leaders had earlier dismissed the ex-deputy premier - who was sacked in 1998 after a fallout with then premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad - as not having significant political influence.

Abdullah also took on Guan Eng, questioning the DAP secretary-general’s sincerity in contesting in Penang.

“I heard that Penangites not only want a chief minister who is from Penang, but also from the island. Where does Lim Guan Eng come from? He ran away from Malacca and came here, does he think that the Penangites are stupid or what?” he asked.

bn gathering at penang rifle range 06 Calling on voters to support Gerakan and MCA, Abdullah harped on the majority sentiment in wanting a chief minister from the Chinese community to continue leading the state.

“Every time when DAP wins big, MCA suffers. You remember you (voters) suffered because of their politics,” he warned.

Anwar ‘father of money politics’

Drumming up similar sentiments was Keng Yaik. He said he had come to Penang after sleepless nights over the possibility that Penangites may fall for the opposition agenda - that voting for Gerakan and MCA would strengthen Umno’s dominance.

gerakan lim keng yaik With his usual animated expressions, the seasoned politician recalled BN’s major defeat in the 1990 general election in the state. Umno won 12 seats, Gerakan retained only seven and MCA lost all.

“As the Gerakan president then, I had to take seven Gerakan state assemblypersons to see Mahathir when Umno had 12. I still break out in a cold sweat remembering that time...not just sweating, I was bleeding actually!” he said in Hokkien, eliciting laughter.

Keng Yaik reiterated that Anwar is “anti-Chinese” and “a chameleon”, and alleged that the latter has practised money politics.

“Anwar was the one who has introduced money politics into Umno - until now Pak Lah (Abdullah) doesn’t know how to solve it,” he claimed, prompted Abdullah to break into chuckles.

Claiming that Anwar has been inconsistent, Keng Yaik cited the example of how Anwar is now advocating the removal of the New Economic Policy among the Chinese community.

“Equality? My foot!” said Keng Yaik.

“Your grandfather (referring to Anwar) wants to fool us Chinese? DAP is a fool, it’s only Guan Eng who is being used by him. Be wary of (Anwar) ‘playing your back’ as well,” he said, quickly clarifying that the word ‘back’ was used in a political context.

lim guan eng and dap The MCA president and Koh also spent almost all of their slots attacking Anwar and Guan Eng, especially Anwar’s ‘anti-Chinese’ track record on Chinese education issues.

The event started off with performances featuring local singers and performers from China.

Abdullah, who arrived at about 9.45pm with his wife Jeanne Abdullah, had a heavy escort of police and at east 30 light strike force unit personnel.

The event was held at the Rifle Range, which falls under the Bukit Bendera parliamentary constituency.

This was where Anwar and Guan Eng held their first ceramah and attracted about 2,000 people on the night of nomination day on Feb 24.

The opposition parties are focusing much of their energy on Penang as a front-line state in their election campaign.