KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 \u2014 As the dust settles on Malaysia’s eighth by-election \u2014 predictably won by the opposition Pakatan Rakyat \u2014 it’s become apparent that the prevailing trend has prevailed again. <\/p>\n
The Permatang Pasir by-election in Penang was won decisively on Tuesday by PAS, making it a clean sweep of seven by-election wins in Peninsular Malaysia for the opposition alliance since last year’s general election. A by-election in Sarawak was won by Barisan Nasional.<\/p>\n
PAS candidate Mohd Salleh Man, 52, defeated Umno’s Rohaizat Othman, 38, in Permatang Pasir, where the seat fell vacant after the incumbent, a PAS assemblyman, died of a heart attack last month.<\/p>\n
An analysis of the voting results indicated again that race or religious rhetoric is a dicey strategy for electoral success.<\/p>\n
Analyst Ibrahim Suffian, whose Merdeka Centre does independent polling, said studies have shown that such rhetoric may swing a small percentage of Malay voters, but alienate a far larger number of non-Malay voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does not help to win substantial Malay votes, but it repels others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Permatang Pasir by-election reflected this. Of the 20,000 voters, 72 per cent are Malays, 26 per cent Chinese, almost 2 per cent Indians, and the rest are classified as others.<\/p>\n
The PAS candidate took 65 per cent of the total votes, just slightly lower than the 66 per cent in last year’s general election.<\/p>\n
A look at the racial breakdown showed that PAS’ share of Malay votes fell by 3 percentage points, but its Chinese support rose by 6 percentage points.<\/p>\n
Political analyst Ong Kian Ming said PAS’s Malay support fell from 65 to 62 per cent, but its share of Chinese votes went up from 71 to 77 per cent.<\/p>\n
Analysts agree that the ratcheting up of Malay rhetoric had sent the Chinese votes fleeing from Umno. In recent weeks, the Umno-linked Utusan Malaysia newspaper had repeatedly called on the Malays to rise up as they were losing political power.<\/p>\n
The death in custody of opposition aide Teoh Beng Hock also stirred anger.<\/p>\n
Ibrahim said some of Umno’s rallies during the Permatang Pasir by-election were strong on race rhetoric. He noted that as a result, Umno had won some of the older Malay voters.<\/p>\n
But significantly, the Chinese had disregarded recent PAS-led measures to enforce Islamic laws more strictly in Selangor. Clearly, the Chinese see PAS as a more moderate party than Umno.<\/p>\n
\u201cUmno has cemented its position in public perception as the more extreme,\u201d said Ong.<\/p>\n
Going by the eight by-elections, analysts believe that parties which occupy the middle ground in public perception have the best chance of winning seats.<\/p>\n
This is because the Malay swing vote tends to be very limited. Ibrahim said the Malay core vote base for PAS and Umno is fairly entrenched.<\/p>\n
It’s unclear which direction PAS will take now. The party is split between those who want to stick to a multiracial platform, and those who want a stronger Islamic agenda. This struggle has yet to be resolved. Some within PAS will see the Permatang Pasir win as \u201ca vote for a moderate stance, but some may interpret it as an approval for an Islamic agenda\u201d, said Ibrahim. \u2014 The Straits Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 \u2014 As the dust settles on Malaysia’s eighth by-election \u2014 predictably won by the opposition Pakatan Rakyat \u2014 it’s become apparent that the prevailing trend has prevailed again. The Permatang Pasir by-election in Penang was won decisively on Tuesday by PAS, making it a clean sweep of seven by-election wins in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}