It is a Malaysian tsunami not Chinese tsunami, based on new aspirations and reality reflected in GE 13 outcome

BN fared worse this time around compared to 2008. The number of its parliamentary seats dwindled to 133 from 140. As for state legislative assemblies, the figure was even less impressive with 275 compared to 306 previously although the ruling coalition managed to recapture Kedah and legitimise its control over Perak.

For the first time since the 1969 general election, BN garnered less popular votes than the opposition. I agree with debaters who asserted that this is not a “Chinese tsunami” given the fact that the BN’s performance had also worsened in Malay majority states such as Terengganu.

“Please accept the results.” That was the closing remark of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in his media conference when accepting the Barisan Nasional’s victory in the 13th general elaction at the Umno headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Briefly, my preliminary observation is BN cannot be proud or, more so, swollen-headed with its achievement because prior to this it had boasted openly about winning big and securing a two-third majority in the Dewan Rakyat and recapturing states held by the Pakatan Rakyat.

Instead, its achievement is worse than in the 2008 GE because the PR had succeeded in penetrating Johor and won more seats in Sarawak – two states deemed as BN’s fixed deposit – and won additional seats in state legislative assemblies nationwide.

Although the PR had failed in its “Ubah” and “Ini Kalilah” campaign to wrest control of the Federal Government, the pact had nevertheless expanded its presence to all states.

BN had successfully recaptured Kedah and defended Perak, but failed in its attempt to win back Selangor and Kelantan although its propaganda machinery had given the impression that Selangor was already in its hand and there were hopes of winning Kelantan.

With regard to Selangor, its defeat is a major slap in the face for being so boastful.

Penang needs no mention. Both the Gerakan and MCA were totally destroyed.

The bait Najib put before the Chinese produced no results. They openly rejected BN.

Najib was stunned by the outcome and promised changes to Umno. But the poor showing compared to 2008 has made his position vulnerable.

Also, is the outcome of this general election a “tsunami Cina” (Chinese tsunami) as Najib had described them or were they the manifestation of something more significant i.e. a large number of voters no longer accept the BN and the BN-led government as it exists today?

Is it not possible that this is not a Chinese tsunami or ethnic chauvinism but instead a Malaysian tsunami that is based on new aspirations and reality, especially among the young voters?

Although BN has recaptured Kedah, its strength in all state legislative assemblies had fallen.

It almost lost Terengganu as well as surrendered many seats to PR in all states.

On the PR side, it must accept the choice of voters and any dissatisfaction and dispute must be settled in accordance with laws and regulations, and not via street protests.

Wallahualam. – Akadirjasin.blogspot.com/akadirjasin.com.
> A. Kadir Jasin is Editor-in-Chief of magazine publishing company, Berita Publishing Sdn Bhd

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The impact of the Chinese tsunami' means that there has to be genuine reconciliation with the community and that Barisan Nasional has to rethink its concept.

 

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THE Chinese voters, who are about 30% of the electorate, had fervently believed that Malay voters would also reciprocate and ubah (change) the Barisan Nasional government. However, this did not happen.

In their zeal for change, which was encapsulated in the election slogan Ini Kali Lah!, they voted out not only the MCA but also devastated Gerakan and the Sarawak-based Chinese party SUPP, giving their votes solely to the DAP.

The DAP improved on its 2008 performance, winning 38 parliamentary seats this time.

They also made significant contributions to the success of PKR, which won 30 seats, and even to PAS, which took 21.

In all, Pakatan Rakyat won 89 seats.

Barisan Nasional managed to retain power, winning 133 seats on the back of increased Malay support.
Umno candidates defeated big PAS names such as deputy president Mohamad Sabu in Pendang, deputy PAS spiritual head Datuk Harun Din in Arau and PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub in Pulai.

The Malays stayed with the tried and tested Umno.

In Sabah and Sarawak, although PKR and DAP made inroads into Kadazandusun and Chinese majority areas, the bulk of the east Malaysian seats stayed with Barisan.

The Chinese voters, who were largely out to punish Umno, were hoping that the Malays would also follow suit but they ended up punishing the MCA, Gerakan and SUPP.

In a roundabout way, one can even say that the Chinese voters also punished themselves with their decision to vote for the Opposition by taking themselves out of the Government.

Understandably, they were taken up by the excitement of the many ceramah conducted to full houses.

The MCA won only seven seats, fewer than the 15 it had when the race started. Gerakan and SUPP have been virtually wiped out.

The significance of this outcome on race relations and for Chinese political participation in the Government is staggering, to say the least.

As a multi-ethnic country it is not advisable for one community, especially the economically vibrant Chinese, to be out of the Government and sit in the Opposition bench.

While the Malays and east Malaysians, not to mention the MIC as well, have every right to demand for greater representation in the Government because of their victory in the elections, the Chinese community unfortunately cannot do so because they have voted themselves out of the Government.

The MCA had passed a resolution during its EGM before the polls that it would not accept any government position if it received fewer than the 15 seats it won in 2008. Now, its position in the Government has been rendered untenable.

It's obvious in elections that winners go on to form the Government and losers stay out. That's exactly what the MCA is proposing following GE13's outcome to stay out.

Barisan chief Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was visibly upset over the way his Government has been rejected by the Chinese voters.

It's not that they rejected him or his Government per se but they rejected all the other baggage that came with it. There was the perception that he has been winning Malay support by raising Malay fears.

They (the Chinese) want an honest relationship like the way the Pakatan state governments have been doing in engaging them.

They believe that the DAP government in Penang and the PKR-run government in Selangor are examples of what they want in a Government and if Najib could emulate these, he would, no doubt, get their support.

Najib has promised national reconciliation as part of the new Government's efforts to heal the wounds of GE13.

While sharing power with losers would be difficult, Najib would have to find other ways to work with and accommodate the Chinese community. The best way to do this is to engage the Opposition parties.

The Opposition parties, for good or worse, now represent the Chinese community.

Now that he has his own mandate, Najib will have to look at the very concept of Barisan itself - because it is clearly not working.

Barisan should either think of reconstituting itself as one big multi-racial party, as was talked about post-2008, or form alliances even with the Opposition parties for the good of the people.

The era of one party representing one race is long over the MCA, MIC and even Umno should consider opening up.

What the Chinese also desire is genuine partnership.

These are long-term goals. For now, Najib has to find a formula which includes Chinese representation in the Government, not by making losers into senators and then ministers, but by genuine reconciliation with the community and on its terms.

COMMENT
By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY

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Barisan Nasional keeps its hold on power thanks to the Malay breakwater that held back a Chinese wave that swept over the country. 

A CHINESE tsunami swept over the country last night. It ripped through all the seats that had a significant Chinese electorate and devastated Gerakan and MCA in the peninsula and SUPP in Sarawak.

The tsunami was basically about the Chinese electorate going for change. The result was that the DAP emerged the big winner, making new gains everywhere, including in Johor.

But it was evident that the Pakatan Rakyat slogan of “ABU, or Asalkan Bukan Umno (Anything But Umno)” had also resonated with the urban populace in general because Pakatan regained Selangor with a two-thirds majority.

The Chinese tsunami also helped to carry many of the PKR candidates in many of the mixed seats.

However, the tsunami could not quite make it to Putrajaya.

At about 1am, a solemn-looking Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that Barisan Nasional had a simple majority to form the government.

At press time, Barisan had attained 133 seats, still short of the 138-seat majority won by his predecessor Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Najib was clearly disappointed but he spoke in a calm and steady voice as he urged everyone to accept the election result as part of the democratic process.

The Malay electorate, especially those in the rural states, continued to back Barisan. It is a small consolation to Najib that the Malays have returned to Umno in a significant way.

The Malay wall held back the Chinese tsunami and Barisan won back Kedah. It also held on to Perak, which was a subject of speculation until close to midnight.

At press time, Barisan won Perak with 31 state seats against 28 by Pakatan. But Pakatan continued to dominate in Penang with an increased majority.

PAS managed to hold on to Kelantan with a much reduced majority, which showed that Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat's appeal as a religious figure still commands support in the state.

As predicted, PAS won the least seats among the Pakatan parties and DAP is now the dominant party in Pakatan with the most number of seats. It can also lay claim to having defeated a top Umno leader, namely former Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Ghani Othman in Gelang Patah.

The Pakatan wins also mean that Johor and Sarawak are no longer the fixed-deposit states for Barisan.

The zero sum game of politics means that DAP's gain is MCA's loss because both parties contested in Chinese-majority seats. MCA won only seven parliamentary seats, far short of the 15 that it won in 2008.

MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek tweeted late last night that the party would not be accepting any government posts.

This was in keeping with the pledge made that the party would not accept posts in the Government if it did not do better this time.

A big question mark hangs over the future of MCA as well as Gerakan and SUPP and they will have to do much soul-searching after this.

The Chinese rejection of Barisan is a big blow to Najib, who went out of his way to persuade them to come along on his economic and political transformation journey.

The Chinese have rejected a moderate and inclusive leader, who has made more overtures to the Chinese than any other Prime Minister before him, and Najib and his coalition will have to reassess all this in the months to come.

There will also be soul-searching on the part of PAS, given its loss in Kedah and the defeat of several of its top leaders, including its deputy president Mohamed Sabu in Kedah and vice-president Salahuddin Ayub in Johor. Another vice-president, Datuk Husam Musa, lost in Putrajaya.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the election result is that the ruling coalition is dominated by Umno and the Malays while the opposition Pakatan is dominated by the Chinese-based DAP.

The impact of this will become clearer as the dust settles over the most closely-fought election ever.

Comment
By Joceline Tan
The Star/Asia News Network

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Malaysian GE13: In sickness and in health?

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Meeting the people: Anwar addressing the crowd during a campaign in Malim Nawar, Kampar.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is a very busy man these days, but the person who awaits him each time he comes home must be reason enough for the opposition leader to get up and keep on going the next day.

DATUK Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail jokes that she has now become a JP – Jaga Pintu.

No matter how late her husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim gets back from campaigning, she always makes sure she is the one to open the door for him.

“I just think of how much pahala (merit) I must be getting by waking up to let him in and that motivates me,” says the PKR president who has a full schedule herself during this run-up to the general election.

Last Wednesday, Anwar was in Bandar Baru Uda, Johor, then Batu Pahat before finishing in Segamat. His ceramah only ended after midnight.

After that, he stopped at a mamak stall with the PKR candidate for Segamat and former health minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng for a drink before heading back to Kuala Lumpur.

He only got home at 4am, grabbed some sleep, then it was off to the PKR headquarters at Merchant Square, Petaling Jaya, for a morning press conference before rushing off to Pahang for another round of ceramah.

Again, he got back to Kuala Lumpur in the wee hours of the morning – this time it was at 2am – but at the crack of dawn, he was up for prayers and off to the airport to catch a morning flight to Sarawak for another packed programme.

Then he was in Sabah for more of the same before heading back to Kuala Lumpur before dashing off to Penang, Putrajaya, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Perak and Kedah for the final leg of campaigning.

Dr Wan Azizah says Anwar is good at pacing himself and getting power naps to re-energise so he can keep up with the gruelling pace.

Since the dissolution of Parliament, she says the PKR leader hasn’t had time to do his usual five-minute exercise on the bicycle.

“So, he does some stretches. And if (second daughter Nurul) Nuha’s one-year-old son, Sulaimaan, is around, he becomes Anwar’s ‘dumbell’.

“He loves it when Anwar lifts him up and down. So Anwar does that 10 to 15 times and that’s his upper arm exercise,” she laughs.

To maintain his health, Anwar has also started taking bird’s nest soup. “Because I know it’s made from birds’ saliva, I can’t drink it,” says Dr Wan Azizah with her usual no-airs charm.

On the campaign trail, Dr Wan Azizah and Anwar split up so they can cover more ground.

“We BBM or whatsapp each other a few times every day and talk at least once a day,” says Dr Wan Azizah.

Wherever he goes, crowds flock to hear Anwar speak.

“If Pakatan Rakyat wins the elections on May 5, we will be sworn in as the new government on May 6, and on May 7 we will bring petrol prices down,” Anwar says at almost every stop.

He promises that a Pakatan-run Federal Government will fully fund Chinese and Tamil schools in the country and abolish the PTPTN student loan scheme to make university education free.

As for the multi-billion ringgit Iskandar project in Gelang Patah, he says if Pakatan takes over the state, it will make sure there is participation of Johoreans in the project and that locals benefit from it – not just Singa­poreans and outsiders.

Anwar also accuses Barisan of stealing Pakatan’s ideas in its Janji Ditepati manifesto such as the bringing down of import duty on cars.

Another star attraction at the Opposition leader’s ceramah is the PKR double-decker, 18-seater Jelajah Merdeka Rakyat bus.

“Whenever it stops, people crowd around to take photos and pose in front of the bus,” says Anwar’s press secretary Najwan Halimi, who is a mechanical engineering graduate with political aspirations himself.

“Sometimes if Anwar is in the bus and there is time to spare, he’ll get down and take pictures with the people.” Most of the time, though, Anwar is not on the bus.

Because he has to rush from place to place for the tight ceramah schedule and due to his back problem, Anwar usually moves around in a car and hops onto the bus the last two or three kilometres from the location.

“Sometimes party or division leaders would get on the bus to join the campaign and arrive at the venue together with Anwar,” says Najwan. “People love the bus because it is something different and special.”

Come May 5, voters will decide whether they opt for something different or stay with what’s comfortable and familiar.

ANALYSIS BY SHAHANAAZ HABIB

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