Umno leaders had been working extra hard during the Chinese New Year extended weekend. By the look of it, the mission was to reassure people all over the country that the party still has strength and confidence to take back what it had lost, even in these trying times. The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) has until March 2013 to hold the pivotal 13th General Election which many thought was going to happen last year. Don’t worry, it’s going to be real soon, especially if it is to happen this year.   

March – though it’s when the school holiday is – would be too soon. That leaves us with June, November or early next year. Last year, our former No 1, Dr Mahathir Mohamad had advised (publicly anyway) Prime Minister Najib Razak to hold the election off as long as he can. Dr Mahathir said that BN would lose to its rival Pakatan Rakyat if the election was to be held then. June is also school term break and so is November. However, even if the number 11 is also supposed to be Najib’s lucky number, it's unlikely that the PM is going to do it at the end of 2012 as the monsoon season would be a real inconvenience. Looking at these factors, it is very probable that Najib will push it all the way to early 2013.

Regardless of what people say – be it Dr Mahathir or pundits, – it’s Najib who makes the call. While from the outset Najib appears to be playing it by ear, the opposition pact looks ready to face the big GE13. The rakyat also looks ready for a Pakatan government and the long-overdue two-party system. Whether all of us are ready for Anwar Ibrahim as their prime minister, well, that’s another story entirely. But it’s quite certain that the final decision that will be made by Malaysians will be known more likely around early 2013 the way things are going.

While Umno-BN has a lot of damage control to take care of as PKR make more exposés on the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC), the DAP have managed to rope in three relatively prominent Malay figures. To say the recent enlistment of former Umno assemblyman Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz, his fellow blogger and Umno veteran Aspan Alias, and former National Union of Journalists (NUJ) president and former journalist of Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia into DAP was a slap in the face for Umno would be an understatement. You can pretty much tell this from the uncreative counterpunch to this latest development in the form of Utusan’s usual opposition bashing weekend editorial by Awang Selamat who went to say that DAP is “the most racist party in the world” . So eat your heart out Pauline Hanson.

It’s quite clear that BN still has a lot to do despite its spiel about strength and confidence. However, you can’t totally dismiss the possibility of a snap election. After all, Umno boasts of their 3 million party members and as Sun Tzu said in The Art of War, “Speed is the essence of war. Take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness; travel by unexpected routes and strike him where he has taken no precautions”. So if you haven’t registered yourself as a voter yet, you’d better get your ass over to the post office and get it done.

*The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer.