Despite anger at Dr Mahathir, Chinese vote will go to Pakatan

Yeoh Cheong Ee Yeoh Cheong Ee Updated 6 years ago · Published on 14 Mar 2018 7:00AM · 4 Comments

Tanjung Bungah residents at the Penang chief minister’s Chinese New Year open house last week. DAP helped the opposition sweep 80% of Chinese votes but their support will likely go down because of the leadership of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the opposition. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, March 14, 2018.

A SEGMENT of the Chinese community is still unhappy with Dr Mahathir Mohamad because of his authoritarian rule when he was prime minister and this is expected to reduce support for Pakatan Harapan in the 14th general election, political analysts said.

“In the past two general elections, DAP helped the opposition sweep 80% of Chinese votes. But for GE14, this is no longer a certainty because of Dr Mahathir’s involvement,” said Utar lecturer Liew Wui Chern.

He estimates a loss of between 5% and 10% of Chinese votes for PH, which Dr Mahathir is leading as chairman for the last nine months. Dr Mahathir was prime minister for 22 years and retired in 2003.

But these votes may not necessarily go back to the ruling Barisan Nasional, as those who do not like him would likely spoil their votes, or not vote at all, Liew said.

“The Chinese are divided about him. On the one side, there are those who are able to let bygones be bygones and focus on the bigger picture. On the other side, they believe Dr Mahathir started the rot and will likely revert to his old self if PH wins GE14.”

He, however, said the majority of Chinese voters, who make up 29.68% of the voting population, will still support the opposition, focusing on the bigger picture of regime change and eliminating corruption.

According to Chinese analysts, the community still remember and are sore about are the abuse of security laws to clamp down on freedom, such as the Ops Lalang episode in the late 1980s and the Bank Negara forex scandal in the early 1990s.

Another episode that stands out is Dr Mahathir’s likening of the Chinese to “communists” and “extremists” when rejecting a 17-point memorandum submitted by Chinese civil society umbrella group, Suqiu, before the 1999 general election. 

Representing more than 2,000 groups, Suqiu made a number of election demands, which, Dr Mahathir said, would have undone Malaysia’s social contract and constitution that allowed special privileges for Malays.

As far as issues and promises of change are concerned, Liew said, the choice does not appear as clear to the Chinese now, as neither BN nor PH can prove it has effective policies that could solve the people’s problems.

“Even though PH has already unveiled its election manifesto, the policies are too broad and lack details. How will PH manage the country? How will it improve governance?”

Ilham Centre director Hisommudin Bakar said the majority of Chinese voters will still support the opposition in the hope of removing a corrupt regime, despite their misgivings about Dr Mahathir.

“We can see that there is a section of the Chinese community who are adamantly against Dr Mahathir, they cannot simply forgive the wrongs he had committed during his 20-odd years as prime minister.

“But we can also see that there are even more Chinese voters who are willing focus on the bigger picture,” he said. 

Another analyst, Phoon Wing Keong, agreed with the assessment, saying about 70% of Chinese voters will support Dr Mahathir and PH. However, he said, this is mostly down to pragmatism.

“Dr Mahathir’s authoritarian image has already been imprinted into the minds of the Chinese, they won’t change their minds just because PH unveiled its manifesto. They are willing to support PH because they want to change the government, not because they have changed their minds about him,” Phoon said. – March 14, 2018.

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Comments

  • Gerry meandering means for most constituency, at even 10% lost of Chinese vote, it does not matter. A Malay vote swing of a couple of percent in any constituency will make up the lost. That is why the math makes sense for DAP and does not for MCA. MCA is deluded by this 5%-10% gain in Chinese support, they are dependent on Malay votes and a swing away of only a few percent means they lose. They know they will lose, they just think they can blame Najib and stay in power and get what they want.

    Posted 6 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply

  • When the situation reaches to the extend like Zambabwe then THE KAMPONG FOLKS WILL VOTE FOR PARTIES like CINTA MALAYSIA .WAIT AND SEE.

    Posted 6 years ago by Mohanarajan murugeson · Reply

  • I think the majority of chinese voters will still vote for the opposition.

    The Chinese are convinced that they are standing on the side of right, and when you are convinced that you are on the side that is right, you tend not to change your mind, come hell or highwater. The Chinese are convinced that they are the ones on the side of right because Najib and other BN leaders have been caught red handed multiple times committing blatant acts of corruption.

    Dr. Mahathir is not a big factor that will sway the Chinese votes for the same reason why Dr. mahathir is not a big factor in swaying the malay vote. Dr. Mahathir can only sway votes if he projects a commanding and confident image. Since his foray into the opposition camp, Dr. Mahathir does not project a confident and commanding image, and thus he will not sway Chinese votes away from the side he is on, nor bring malay votes to the side that he is on.

    Although the majority of the chinese voters are still going to stay with the opposition, i think a significant minority of chinese are going to return to MCA's fold. The reason is pragmatism. Despite retaining their misgivings over BN's shortcoming, if the chinese think that Najib's BN has a greater chance of winning the 2018 election by means fair or foul, a significant minority will switch their support in favour of MCA for no other reason than because to back the winning horse is the pragmatic thing to do .

    If this is true, i think DAP and the side that DAP backs will get most of the chinese votes, but MCA will win more seats in the 2018 elections than it did in the 2013 elections.

    Posted 6 years ago by Nehru Sathiamoorthy · Reply

  • Chinese are against BN policies. Yes, Mahathir put in policies which included allowing NEP to be implemented perpetually, but the current BN government has all the power to change them. The fact that BN practices bad policies established by past UMNO leaders, and is still keeping them, does not absolve them of the blame, and so the present UMNO leaders and BN candidates should be defeated. Chinese want a change and it serves no purposes to hate those who started bad policies. Chinese would be stupid to waste their votes if not to defeat BN.

    Posted 6 years ago by Meng Kow Loh · Reply