THE Tg Piai by-election results do not signify rejection of Dr Mahathir Mohamad per se but anger with the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government as a whole, said analysts.

Voters judged the government as a collective of leaders and individuals instead of a one-man show said think-tank Ilham Centre, which surveyed sentiments in the last Saturday’s parliamentary by-election.

That the by-election was a referendum of sorts on the prime minister was only a view promoted by certain quarters, analysts said.

Those who believe this are Dr Mahathir’s critics in PH, who feel the 94-year-old must hand over power now to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.

Ilham Centre executive director Mohd Azlan Zainal said Tg Piai voters’ spurning of the ruling coalition to give Barisan Nasional a humiliating 15,000-vote lead was due to the government’s performance, especially its inability to fulfil its election manifesto.

“The results are not an indictment of any individual but the PH government as a whole. It’s a collective punishment,” he said.

“Voters were angry with a host of things but the transition (of power) was not one of them.”

Based on its survey, Ilham Centre had predicted that PH would lose the by-election to BN by about 16,000 votes, Azlan said.

It was a shocking reversal of PH’s fortune in the general election last year, when it snatched the BN stronghold by just 524 votes.

Ilham Centre attributed PH’s defeat to the “extraordinary anger” of Chinese voters in particular, with the government’s education policies and management of the economy.

Not fair to blame Dr Mahathir

Chinese voters comprised 42% and Malays, 57% of the Tg Piai electorate.

PH is estimated to have lost about 40% of the Chinese vote it received in GE14.

Analyst Lim Hong Siang of think-tank Saudara said Chinese voters were aggrieved by the government’s delay in recognising the independent Chinese school’s Unified Examination Certificate as a pre-university qualification.

The government’s protective stance on controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and PH ministers’ attendance of the Malay Dignity Congress have also infuriated the Chinese community, he said.

“DAP promised before the general election that it would recognise the UEC. But this has not happened,” said Lim.

Disappointment in the government deepened when it proposed to teach Jawi in the vernacular schools and cut funding for Tunku Abdul Rahman  (TAR) University College, added Lim.

The government has withheld funds for the college founded by MCA until the BN component party relinquishes ownership of the institution.

“Low-income Chinese families see TAR as a viable choice for tertiary education given that many of their children cannot get into public universities because of the race-based quota system.”

As such, it isn’t Dr Mahathir alone who is to blame for the plunge in Chinese support for PH, Lim said.

“It’s not fair to say that Dr Mahathir should go because of Tg Piai.”

Likewise if PH had won, he said it would also not be fair to say that it was a signal for him to stay on until the end of the term.

The Ilham Centre survey found that more than 65% of Tg Piai voters felt living costs had worsened under the PH government

Almost 70% of respondents were dissatisfied with Putrajaya’s performance and more than 60% unhappy with PH’s administration of Johor. – November 23, 2019.