MANEK URAI (KELANTAN) - A DAY after Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) barely squeaked to victory in a by-election in its stronghold of Kelantan, the opposition is torn between bravado and admitting that a warning signal has been sounded.

'The point is, we have won all the by-elections in Peninsular Malaysia,' he told reporters during a break in his sodomy trial yesterday.

He claims Umno is now almost lifeless but said the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition was bogged down by 'perception issues'. The coalition has been embroiled in in-fighting in recent weeks.

Kelantan PAS leader Husam Musa also said the party had managed to fend off the intense onslaught of Umno, which used its extensive resources to win the hearts of the rural voters.

But this bravado is not shared by everyone in the opposition, or even within PAS itself.

Democratic Action Party leader Lim Kit Siang called the by-election result a 'shocker'. 'It is a salutary warning to Pakatan Rakyat parties and leaders who think that Pakatan Rakyat can indulge in the luxury of excesses and internal strife, mistakenly believing that Pakatan Rakyat is riding on such an irresistible political wave that it could not possibly lose in any by-election or in the next general election,' he wrote in his blog.

On Tuesday, PAS was shocked by an extremely narrow win of just 65 votes in keeping the Manek Urai state seat in Kelantan. Its vote majority was slashed from 1,300 in the general election last year.

The seat, which fell vacant upon the death of the PAS assemblyman in May, was its stronghold. It had lost the seat only twice since independence.

In part, the drop in support was due to the rift in PAS' top leadership over one faction's push for closer ties with Umno. This is opposed by another faction that wants to go with the opposition.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.

carolyn@sph.com.sg

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