Urban, Not Chinese Tsunami

 This GE, Urban Tsunami, not Chinese Tsunami (SK Teoh Letters Malaysiakini)

Umno and MCA have unfairly blamed the election results as the “Chinese tsunami” and accused the Chinese and DAP for causing the racial divide. The fact is, many Chinese have voted against the corruption, wastage of funds, injustice and arrogance of UMNO. Most Chinese have supported the Malays who are from PKR and even PAS.

 If many of  the rural Malays still support UMNO, with its scandals of SCORPENE submarines, cattle in the Condo, extravagant lifestyle of its leaders, then they are either blinded by UMNO propaganda or even being racial themselves! Fortunately many Malays in urban areas and in Kelantan and Trengganu are against such malpractices of UMNO. Pakatan won 51% of the popular votes, yet the Chinese form only 24% of the population. Even if 80% of the Chinese voted for Pakatan and DAP, there must be at least 40% of the Malays who voted against UMNO.

            During the heated campaign, none of the 3 parties, including DAP has resorted to racial slogans. In contrast, UMNO and MCA made several racial accusations, even contradicting each other, by respectively charging that a vote for PAS will be a vote for secular DAP and a vote for DAP will lead to hudud.  UMNO even accepted candidates from extremist PERKASA.

The victorious Pakatan seats were mainly found in the urban areas. Almost all the capital cities of the 13 states and Kuala Lumpur were won by Pakatan. In Selangor, Pakatan parties were well supported by all races, including Malays. Thus this is an urban tsunami. Pakatan parties have elected members from all the multiracial population groups while Barisan seats are almost 80% UMNO and predominantly of Malay/Muslim groups. Which coalition is more representative of Malaysia’s population? DAP alone has 3 Malays elected, 3 Sikhs and 11 Indians. How many Chinese and Indians have UMNO?

            Some of the DAP seats were won from multiracial support. Chinese have voted for non-Chinese DAP candidates even when they stood against Chinese candidates from Barisan. Thus urban Malaysians, including the Malays and Chinese, will vote for Pakatan candidates, irrespective of race. On the other hand, UMNO received its main support from rural Malays.

            There could be some underlying grievances from the Chinese against UMNO-Barisan. A glaring example is that Putrajaya has only 1% Chinese, showing the lopsided imbalance of the Civil Service in terms of racial ratio. Najib obviously realised the neglect, with his last minute approval of Chinese schools and Hindraf proposals within days, after ignoring MCA and MIC over the last 50 years! In 2004, MCA, MIC and Gerakan had done very well but UMNO became more arrogant. Only after the 2008 tsunami, UMNO toned down its rhetoric. After PRU13, UMNO has to change and decide whether to reconcile with the opposition or continue its racial rhetoric!