THE Chinese vote for Pakatan Harapan cannot be taken for granted any more as the community’s poor turnout at Saturday’s anti-kleptocracy rally could be a sign of something more ominous in the next elections, a post-mortem showed.

A member of the organising team told The Malaysian Insight the assumption that the Chinese will continue to vote for PH is wrong and this was translated by the low turnout at the “Save Malaysia, End Kleptocracy” rally in Padang Timur, Petaling Jaya.

“After the rally, we discussed why middle-class voters in the city, especially the Chinese did not attend although it was held in Petaling Jaya,” said one of PH top leaders, who did not want to be named.

“This could be because middle-class Chinese voters are fed up with the political situation in Malaysia or they are tired and have already given up after seeing all the internal feuds in the opposition.

“They may not vote for Barisan Nasional (BN) in GE14 but most likely will not come out to vote in the next elections.”

PH leaders said they succeeded in attracting 25,000 people to the rally but Selangor police chief Mazlan Mansor said only 4,000 people turned up. 

The source, however, said another reason for the low turnout could be because the Chinese feel they already understand the kleptocracy and 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) issues.

“But I disagree with that. I feel that PH should seriously investigate why middle-class Chinese voters did not attend the rally.

“We cannot leave the issue as it is and risk losing their support in GE14,” said the source.

Ilham Centre’s executive director Hisommudin Bakar said based on his research, Chinese voters will “wait and see” before deciding for whom to vote.

“In GE13, more than 85% of the Chinese voters voted for the opposition and it was subsequently labelled a ‘Chinese tsunami’. But the change in government did not happen.

“Similarly, the Chinese also received a lot of flak after attending the Bersih 4 rally. As such, they are waiting to see how the Malays would react before they decide what to do,” he said.

Hisommudin said it is most likely that PH will not get the same level of support from the Chinese if it fails to attract more Malays.

Political analyst Khoo Kay Peng said the Chinese are very practical and the opposition parties should have focused on providing clear alternatives to BN.

“PH should not concentrate on just bashing the government. I think what the people want to hear is whether the opposition can govern better (than the current government).”

PH’s communication and mobilisation committee chairman Mohamad Sabu said the rally on Saturday succeeded in gathering the Malays.

“For this rally, we targeted the Malays and we succeeded in achieving the target.

“It is fine that the Chinese did not attend. They did their part by attending the Bersih 4 and Bersih 5 rallies.

“We are worried that the Malays may not understand the 1MDB scandal that the country is facing and they just assumed that it was a conspiracy to topple Prime Minister Najib Razak,” said Mohamad, who is also PH deputy president and Amanah president.

Mohamad said the rally on Saturday also succeeded in collecting RM68,000 from the attendees.

“This time around, they cannot just say PH rallies only succeeded in gathering the Chinese because it is proven that the Malays came out, too,” he added. – October 17, 2017.