I refer to Malaysiakini report Confirmed! BN not contesting Penant i.

As expected, BN has stuck to their guns in not contesting the upcoming by-election at Penanti thus paving the way for the PKR candidate to win hands down against their independent rivals.

The prime minister has given several excuses why BN won't contest the by-election but the hard truth is that he knows that his candidate will never win in Penanti as voters in that area still support the opposition front rather than BN.

After losing five by-elections after the last general elections, BN under the leadership of Najib Abdul Razak cannot afford to lose another by-election which will only damage further their credibility among voters in this country.

The ghost of the gruesome Mongolian murder case will be highlighted again if BN fields a candidate in Penanti and the image of the prime minister will suffer another bashing like before.

Sentiments on the ground are still against the BN hegemony. The Perak fiasco has further eroded the people's support for BN rule as the highhanded methods they used to capture the state from the opposition front have made decent people to hate BN more.

After occupying the top post in the government for nearly two months now, Najib has still failed to entice the people to support his leadership and one wonders if the new premier's Waterloo will be in the next general elections when the strong opposition front will be more energised to form the federal government and control more state seats than before.

BN should learn from India's recent polls where the Congress Party under the able leadership of Manmohan Singh won big because the economy was good and their leaders delivered their promises to the voters.

It helps also that the grandson of Indra Gandhi, Rahul Gandi managed to win over the younger voters to his side thus paving the way for Congress to rule for a second term with a bigger majority than before.

Voters can forgive their leaders for their weaknesses as long as the economic pie is there for every strata of society. With our economy still in the doldrums due to the global financial crisis, the incumbent weak government will have to work harder to review the economy for their political survival.

Nations whose economies are thriving would re-elect the incumbent government and leaders for another term. In Indonesia, the present popular president Susila Bambang is set to win another term as people there like his economic reforms and his drive to stop corruption and abuse of power by those holding the fort.

While the PKR winning at Penati is all but certain with the BN pullout, Anwar Ibrahim cannot force another by-election in the near future as the people are upset to see our elected representatives treating their exalted seats like hotel rooms where they can ‘check out' anytime they want.

Elected representatives both in Parliament and in the state assemblies should honour the trust given by the voters by fighting for the people's rights in the august houses. They should work hard for the common people in these difficult times to raise the standard of living of the poor and lift the downtrodden out of their cycle of poverty.

They are not supposed to line their pockets through dubious means when holding office.

Penanti might mark the beginning of the end for BN as support for the present regime is at an all time low and unlike previous prime ministers who took office with a clean record, the present premier has a lot of baggage which will bring him down together with his BN partners come the next polls.

Surely you cannot fool all the people all the time. The past sins of BN leaders are catching up with them and the people can now see through them.