Using the adage of the BN ‘a win is a win no matter how small the majority’ is not right in this case. It was a win by the slimmest of majorities - it gave the BN a lot to think about. At the ground level, everyone including the BN, expected to pull this off.

The promise of the bridge, the payment of a "traveling allowance" to voters by who-else-can-it-be and the promise of lots and lots of goodies which only the Barisan could and would give failed to deliver the seat to them. And to say that, "Academics feel that the results of the Manek Urai by-election in Kelantan is a mandate for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's leadership" as reported in Malaysiakini .

What utter rubbish, and this too coming from our "academics", it explains a lot about our academics amd the resultant academic standards here in Malaysia.

Professor Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, the director of the Institute of Malay World and Civilisation, is reported to have said that, "Local issues are not dominant any more. If it was, then PAS would have won with a bigger majority. So we can derive that this is reflective of Najib's leadership."

This man, who is the professor of Malay world and civilisation, has apparently not kept up with this part of the world. Did the Barisan not ask Manek Urai, " do you want PAS or the bridge " and that is an important aspect of civilisation that Umno is bringing to the Malays. For him to say that "local issues are not dominant anymore" means he is completely ignorant of what happened during the campaign.

Slim majorities have always been the case in Kelantan, so reading too much into this by academics and giving it a Najib slant seems to indicate a slanted analysis.

The BN gave it all they had, they even gave it a bridge but it failed and that is how it has to be looked upon, the extremely high voter turnout, the fact that many outstation voters came in and of course the postal votes, the military and police votes would have counted in BN's favour as they always will and yet they lost, they lost, yes, they lost and that can be no victory for a prime minister who sent his deputy to lead the campaign.

Every trick in the book had been applied, promises, promises and promises which no one doubted they'd keep should they have won, and how that is to materialise now is the big question about the government of Najib Abdul Razak.