PERIKATAN Nasional (PN) won 11 Malay majority seats in the Penang state election on Saturday last week (Aug 12), thanks to a substantial number of votes from UMNO supporters, says a political scientist.
Political scientist Prof Dr Wong Chin Huat of Sunway University remarked that the “green wave” in Penang saw PN “absorbing” the majority of UMNO votes, even at the expense of UMNO candidates who lost their voters’ support.
“The much hoped for transfer of UMNO votes to Pakatan Harapan (PH) did not happen, causing unity coalition partner parties PKR and Amanah to lose to PN,” he was quoted as saying by FMT.
“The additional votes PKR and Amanah secured were much lower than the votes BN secured in the Malay constituencies at the 15th General Elections (GE-15). The (best scenario) was in Bayan Lepas, where Amanah gained 3,360 more votes, which was only about 55% of votes from BN in GE15.”
In the meantime, Azeem Fazwan Ahmad Farouk of Universiti Sains Malaysia pointed out that PN profited from Malays’ concern over the community’s terrible socio-economic conditions.
“The household income of the Malays is the lowest in the state. Plus, the cost of living in Penang is high, and owning a house is a major challenge, not only for the Malays but for other ethnic groups as well,” he was reported as saying by the online news portal.
“All these woes were reflected in their dissatisfaction towards the current ruling state government.
“Amanah suffered from a perception that it is subservient to DAP, while PKR’s status as a multiracial party hurt its efforts to gain traction in the rural Malay seats in Penang,” Azeem added.
Meanwhile, Sunway’s Wong explained that PN campaigned on the basis that the Malay parties in PH-BN were unable to uphold Islam or promote the welfare of Muslims due to their claimed allegiance to DAP.
“This will only change when Penang politics progresses into contestation over policy ideas and moves away from ethnic politics,” he noted.
At the same time, Wong urged the Penang PH-BN unity collation to take steps that would move Penang politics away from race-based rhetoric and towards ideas contestation.
“Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow should take the first step by inviting PN to form a shadow state executive committee of its 11 assemblymen and providing them with resources to conduct research.
“When that happens, fighting for Malay interest will have to be about policy ideas, not just slogans and slanders,” he said, adding that such an action would boost public expectations of the oppositions and strengthen PH-BN’s image among Malays.
In the state election which took place last Saturday (Aug 12), the unity coalition of PH-BN managed to retain Penang, securing 29 seats out of the 40 state assembly seats.
PN managed to win 11 Malay predominantly seats of Pinang Tunggal, Permatang Berangan, Sungai Dua, Telok Ayer Tawar, Seberang Jaya, Permatang Pasir, Penanti, Sungai Bakap, Pulau Betong, Telok Bahang and Penaga, with seven of those seats were wrested from PKR, four from UMNO, and one from Amanah. – Aug 16, 2023
Main pic credit: Harakah Daily
