Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 28, 2019

A win is a win. Never mind that the status quo remains, or that it did not change the federal political equation.

Barisan Nasional (BN) gets to keep Cameron Highlands and Pakatan Harapan (Pakatan) still enjoys its majority in parliament. However, there are sad and frightening elements coming out of the results.

The sad part is that racial and religious sentiments were exploited — boldly and extensively — during the election campaign. What is frightening is that the tactic worked.

A political observer who leans towards Pakatan said: “PH (Pakatan) lost badly because of racism. In Jelai and parts of Tanah Rata with significant pockets of Malay voters, the hatred espoused by Umno and PAS ensured that the votes went against the DAP, which was branded as anti-Malay and anti-Islam”.

The observer might be partisan but there is no denying that there’s some truth in what he is saying.

One glaring example is the fanning of sentiments over the tragic death of Muhammad Adib Kassim, the fire fighter who was killed during the Seafield temple riot in November.

Reportedly, anonymous flyers had been distributed blaming the DAP, Indians and Hindraf for Adib’s death.

A day before the by-election The Malaysian Insight ran a story under the headline: “Fireman’s death turns Malays off Pakatan’s Indian candidate”.

The report quoted an activist from Amanah who claimed to have been told by his neighbours in the Malay heartland of Jelai that they would not vote for the Pakatan candidate M Manogaran from the DAP “because he is Indian”.

And there was a report by The Malay Mail Online of DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang denying an allegation which went viral that he had sought the removal of the words “Malay” and “Islam” from the Federal Constitution in a parliamentary motion.

There were other news items as well of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang calling on Malays to reject the non-Muslim opponent and vote instead for the Muslim candidate as it was “wajib” or obligatory for Muslims to do so. Enough said, although there were lots more.

To the political observer, although this was just a by-election “its impact in segregating Malaysians would be very serious”.

That apart, Pakatan was unable to penetrate rural communities as political analyst Dr Oh Ei Sun pointed out.

“It confirms the observation that Umno remains overwhelmingly strong in rural constituencies and if they can somehow work even closer with PAS such that only one candidate stands from either party in a rural area, their chances of winning remain high”, as Oh sees it.

It cannot be denied that PAS played a significant role in BN’s victory in the Cameron Highlands by helping to deliver the votes in Malay areas like Sungai Koyan and Jelai, observes political analyst Dr Sivamurugan Pandian.

“Malay and Orang Asli voters remain intact for BN,” he says.

However, a Malaysiakini report citing DAP estimates said despite Pakatan losing by a majority of 3,238 votes, it made some ground among the Orang Asli, registering  gains in the nine Orang Asli polling districts compared to GE14 just eight months ago.

Nevertheless says Siva, Pakatan “still could not go across racial barriers” conceding that race and racial issues plus local matters “were much more pertinent than national issues”.

Ilham Centre CEO Azlan Zainal, who had predicted a BN win on the eve of polling day, says the opposition this time found its rhythm and the Umno-PAS cooperation was spot on.

To Azlan the by-election confirmed the presence of an element of protest towards Pakatan, resulting in increased votes for BN. However, he also admits that race and religion as well as making DAP the bogeyman played a big role in the BN victory.

But also working to BN’s favour was Pakatan’s failure to make good its promises in the 14th general election (14GE), which BN gleefully milked, says the research institute head.

A former journalist friend opines that the Pakatan defeat, which was no surprise, ought to be a wake-up call and asks if the Semenyih by-election to be held in March could be “a bigger wake-up call for the new Putrajaya?”

Pakatan might want to say that Cameron Highlands has always been a BN stronghold with even Kit Siang admitting openly that Pakatan needed a miracle to win. And it might also want to attribute the loss to its supporters not coming out to vote — to which Azlan agrees.

Still Azlan notes that the opposition has made race and religion their priority in attacking Pakatan. Since GE14, racial and religious issues have been cranked up by Umno and PAS to such an extent that Pakatan has been proven to have not garnered Malay votes in the numbers that matter.

As such tactics have produced the desired result in Cameron Highlands, it will be seen as justification for the opposition to believe that it is not impossible for the Malay voting trend to return to BN, according to Azlan.

As I’ve said in previous articles, race and religion will continue to be misused for political gains. And in Semenyih, it’s a given that they will be featured prominently.

For Pakatan, it’s the unfavourable perception created by the opposition that needs to be erased from the minds of Malay voters, who form the majority.

It is said that in politics, perception is everything, so Pakatan must act fast.


Mohsin Abdullah is contributing editor at The Edge. He has covered politics for more than four decades.

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