GE14: 17 years of loyalty, patience pay off for Shahanim
By Nurrul Huda Ahmad Lutfi
SUNGAI PETANI, May 4 (Bernama) -- Loyalty and patience have paid off for Datuk Shahanim Mohamad Yusoff, 45, the deputy chief of the Sungai Petani UMNO Division and the only woman BN candidate for a parliamentary seat in Kedah in the general election on May 9.
She saw the light at the end of the tunnel after 17 years of toiling for the party she joined in 2001 as a member of the Puteri wing.
The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow may be hers come May 9 if she can emerge victorious in the 14th general election as the MP for Sungai Petani.
She is in a four-cornered contest in the constituency and has to unseat Datuk Johari Abdul of PKR, who held the seat in the last parliament, and thwart off the challenge from Sharir Long of PAS and P. Sritharen of PRM.
Shahanim has got over the huge disappointment of having been overlooked as a candidate in the 13th general election in 2013.
"I was very disappointed. I cried the whole day (after the party had announced the names of the candidates),? she recalled, and said she was sure of being named a candidate then as she was the Puteri UMNO vice-chief and was quite influential in Sungai Petani.
"I will not deny that after having worked hard for the party and having served the constituents, one harbours some hope of becoming an elected representative. One wants to help the people more.
"Holding positions in the party alone will not help that much in our service to the people, unlike the position of an elected representative," she said.
Shahanim admitted that certain people had tried to get her to sabotage the party after she was not named as a candidate in 2013 but she did not waver.
She said that after being pacified by her mother, husband and other family members, she decided to continue to serve the party and the constituents of Sungai Petani.
In October 2013, she surprised many by getting elected to the post of deputy chief of the Sungai Petani UMNO Division, a position hardly held by women. At that time, she had passed the ceiling age of 40 to contest any post in Puteri UMNO.
Shahanim said she was surprised when it was announced that she, a new face, would contest a parliamentary seat in GE14 and not a state seat.
"Nevertheless, I remain positive and will put up a good fight. I tell myself that one has to strive to the best of one's ability and leave the rest to 'Allah' (God). If the people like what I have been doing for them for the past 17 years, they will decide accordingly on May 9," she told Bernama.
She said the constituents knew that whenever they had a problem or were in a difficult situation, the BN grassroots leaders were the first to come to their aid although the elected representative was not from the coalition.
-- BERNAMA
