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KUALA LUMPUR: Whether or not there was a Chinese tsunami in the 2013 general election will be among the topics discussed at a two-day conference in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (Unirazak) vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Seri Dr Md Zabid Abdul Rashid said the popular notion that Pakatan Rakyat won the popular vote but did not get into power to rule would also be addressed at the conference, as well as findings that the 13th general election (GE13) was actually fair.

The conference, organised by Unirazak, will also look at evidence on whether Chinese voters were responsible for a greater swing to the opposition, dubbed the Chinese tsunami.

It will be discussed by Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming in his paper “Malaysia General Election 2013: Electoral Apportionment”, said Unirazak school of government deputy dean Professor Dr Abdillah Noh.

Abdillah said he also had a paper that would test the same idea, adding that he differed from Ong, who held that it was Malay votes that had caused bigger wins for PR in 2013.

Abdillah explained how he had looked at all the state and parliamentary seats with more than 50% Chinese votes.

He added that there were 31 parliamentary seats with more than 50% Chinese votes, and found that all of these seats went to PR.

“So basically, seats that have majority Chinese voters are fixed deposits for Pakatan Rakyat,” he said.

He added that of the 89 state seats that had more than 50% Chinese votes, 87 were won by PR, with the exception of two seats from Sabah.

“So you interpret if there was a Chinese tsunami [or not],” he said at a media briefing yesterday.

Abdillah said the conference was a good platform to hear various points of view, for the purpose of working out strategies to adopt in the next elections. 

He added that the conference would benefit policymakers and political parties to look at the bigger picture, including voting patterns in Sabah and Sarawak, and that ethnicity was a big problem in Malaysian politics.

“I’m saying that it is a problem and it is not healthy. People say we transcend ethnic lines but the last election results have shown that people still vote along ethnic lines, and this is not healthy in terms of public policymaking. It means we are going backwards. So it is important for policymakers and political parties to interpret these results and discuss the best way forward,” he said.

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) chief executive officer Wan Saiful Wan Jan will also present his paper “Was GE Free and Fair”.

Abdillah said that Wan Saiful will reveal that his findings show that GE13 was actually free, even though not totally fair. — The Malaysian Insider

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 5, 2015.

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