The Pematang Pauh version of the Olympics can begin now that the Barisan Nasional has decided on its candidate.
It has been a long process of finding the right man for the big job of taking on a superstar like Anwar Ibrahim but Arif Shah Omar Shah may just about fit the bill.
Of the string of names that the Umno leadership had been looking at, Arif Shah was the only one who could be considered “a winner” in the sense that he was the only one among them who won in the general election.
Arif Shah was the only one among the Umno candidates in the three state seats and the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat who won. He is the Seberang Jaya assemblyman.
The rest had either lost or were not candidates in the elections. One of those hoping to be selected had lost not once but twice in a row and he still believed he was the right man for the job.
Picking a candidate who had lost would be a setback for the Barisan even before the campaign proper can start. Arif Shah on his part can start the race as a winner rather than a loser.
Arif Shah is famous for his fluent command of Mandarin and Hokkien but his real strength is his service track record that few wakil rakyat, even Anwar, can really challenge.
He boasts the only ISO-certified service centre run by any wakil rakyat in the country.
The other interesting thing about Arif Shah is that his elder brother Amin Shah had been a key ally of Anwar in the 1980s while a younger brother Azman Shah was Penang Youth chief.
The Shah brothers' link to Anwar, however tenuous, would deter Anwar from being too harsh on him. But that does not mean other PKR leaders would not go for him.
At an open-air rally on Wednesday night, PKR vice-president Azmin Ali said they had twice defeated the imam besar (former National Mosque imam Pirdaus Ismail) and there was no reason why they could not defeat the imam kecil (Arif Shah).
The Chinese in Arif Shah’s constituents call him peh mor because of his shock of snowy-white hair.
He is also known among some of them as OCBC; it does not stand for the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation but Orang Cina Bukan Cina (Chinese who are not Chinese), a back-handed compliment for his Chinese fluency.
But even with all his talent and energy, Arif Shah is still unlikely to beat Anwar. But he will certainly give the Pakatan Rakyat leader a run for the money.
“I think it is going to be Machinery versus Emotion,” said former Penang deputy chief minister Dr Ibrahim Saad.
Dr Ibrahim, a one-time ally of Anwar, was pitched against Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in 1999.
“I was fighting pure and raw emotion then. I went through it and I know how difficult it can be. Umno has a powerful machinery but emotion is a very irrational feeling and although the feelings are not raw now as in 1999, it will still be very challenging,” he said.
This by-election has drawn so much publicity, is so emotionally loaded and involves such a famous son that it will find everyone in Permatang Pauh taking a stand, whether for Umno or PKR.
“Even people who were uninterested in politics are taking an interest now,” said Dr Ibrahim.
And they will be coming out to vote in droves.
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