I refer to Malaysiakini report Nizar is PAS’ Bkt Gantang candidate .

It was a brilliant move by the PAS leadership to nominate Perak’s ousted menteri besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin as PAS candidate for Bukit Gantang. The local people in the Silver State still cannot forgive and forget how their popular MB was removed from office by the capricious ways of the BN government.

Nizar’s nomination for the parliamentary seat represents a referendum or sorts for the voters to choose between PAS or BN to represent them after the opposition front’s government was removed from office through the underhanded tactics of BN.

It will be an uphill battle for Umno candidate to wrest the seat previously held by PAS as Nizar has the necessary charisma and strength of character to swing the votes to his side in the coming by-election.

Just like the other by-elections held previously where the BN candidates were defeated, the coming by-elections in Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau and Batang Ai which will be held simitiously will be good indicators on how the people rate the present BN government and Pakatan Rakyat.

If the winds of change are still strong among voters, the BN candidates will be hard pressed to win against their Pakatan Rakyat rivals.

Defeats in the three seats contested by BN will sound the death knell of the present BN regime and it will be a good ‘farewell gift’ to the new premier who will take office in early April. Najib Abdul Razak might be the last of the Mohicans from Umno who will occupy the top post in government.

Although the opposition front’s resources and manpower will be spread thin for these historic three by-elections, the sentiment on the grounds with opposition parties’ ceramah attracting a lot of crowds shows that the winds of change are still strong one year since the last general elections.

The power-grabbing incident, the suspension of a vocal member of Parliament from attending parliament for one year and lastly the ban on two opposition party organs show how a desperate regime will use underhanded tactics to stifle the opposition’s voice on the wrongdoings of the present regime.

Umno might elect new leaders in their internal party polls this week but a skeptical public is still not convinced that the oldest party in this country has what it takes to reform for the better. Although a leading candidate for the deputy president’s post was barred from contesting and a few other members suffered the same fate for money politics, it does not mean the party is free from graft.

What was exposed was just the tip of the iceberg as practically all Umno candidates who are running for the coveted posts in the party are guilty of offering bribes to delegates to vote for them. However, they were clever enough to cover their tracks and not be caught for money politics red-handed .

If Umno is serious about reforming the party, the new president cum prime minister, Najib will have to discard the old and tired faces from the party and replace them with new blood who don’t have political baggage to drag the party down. But whether he will do this is another matter entirely.

Never before has a new president of Umno had such difficulty in changing the people’s perception that Umno leaders are corrupt to the core. It will take a miracle for Umno to reform for the better as there seems to have more devils than angles in the party.

But it will be interesting to watch the coming Umno election results to see who is in or out of the party. Whether we like it or not, a majority of Malaysians do not have a say in who becomes the next prime minister of this country, only a few hundred of Umno delegates who can be bribed have been ‘entrusted’ with this important task.

Isn’t it a scary scenario? Malaysians have to live with unless we change the present regime come the next polls? Surely Malaysians regardless of their race and strata of society deserve a better leadership than the present inept one.