Despite dangling a RM20 million development fund, Barisan Nasional failed to wrest both seats during the recent by-elections in Kedah. The voters should be proud of themselves for not grasping!

Pledging public funds to entice voters is the most unethical and corrupt practice in an election whether done by a secular or religious party. Yet the issue campaigned was mostly on hudud .

The exchanges that went on in this by-election must have amused outsiders: there was Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on one hand asking voters to be bribed and vote accordingly, while the opposition tells the voters to " makan umpan, jangan telan kail " (Eat the bait but not the hook).

On an election tour around the two areas, I saw trucks carrying road-resurfacing material shamelessly blaring "brought to you by BN". It is most remarkable that despite all these — or because of all these, and the PM's most exceptional appearance in by-elections, BN failed to sweep the two seats.

I must point out a number of anomalies which the mainstream media did not highlight during the by-election which cannot possibly put the BN in a positive light:

Two University Malaya students were said to have violated the Universities and University Colleges Act by canvassing for the opposition. Irrespective of what their true identities were (the Islamic student body concerned denied the duo were their members), how do you reconcile this charge to the hundreds of school-age looking young girls canvassing under the Puteri Umno banner?

In fact the very age group targetted by Puteri Umno begs the question why there is one law for the opposition and another for Umno. All law-abiding BN leaders must answer for such an inconsistency.

The non-Malay factor is negligible to say the least: most non-Malays are traditionally confirmed BN voters due to their perceived minority status and Umno as the unchanging government of the day.

The daily feasts given to these voters by Chinese-based BN component parties — while often not well attended, only reflect the organisers' lack of self-confidence and perhaps the need to show that they are 'doing something'.

In any case the locals' voting enthusiasm must have been dampened by the high rate of youngsters working outside their home town — a sign of declining economy despite the official rhetoric. The nervousness of some Islamophobia types in KL in warning Chinese activists not to come close to the two by-election areas only reflected the same lack of understanding on the ground.

The hysterical Chinese Internet 'discussions' which took the opportunity to pound Chinese Keadilan members only show their ungrounded fears. In any election, there are many issues involved. Staying away sometimes only serve to cover up facts which are more apparent on the ground!

Media biases were obvious — some perhaps due to partisan stands of editors/media bosses, while others perhaps due to poor coverage. Both are sprawling areas — reporters ended up only chasing politicians, mostly from the same party.

The reporting not only reflects poorly on the media professionalism but actually it was self-defeating. The results were as unpredictable as the recent World Cup: media confidence for BN in Anak Bukit and for PAS in Pendang were both blown apart by the actual results!

Sadly, the chance was missed to have a good debate on hudud laws. Other than a referendum on the issue, it would have been better to have an open, preferably live-telecast, debate on the issue. That could shed more light on the issue than door-to-door campaigning or one-sided ceramah (public talk).

Such one-sided unchallengeable encounters are breeding ground for narrow-minded politicking as exemplified by the existence of posters depicting Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in a priest's robe, among others. While BN politicians condemn such antics, they showed little, if any, remorse for the same dirty stunt done by the PM himself to his then rival Tengku Razaleigh in the past. What would Razaleigh say now?