NON-MALAY voters continue to back Pakatan Harapan for the lack of a better choice, said analysts, who also warned that the support would remain as long as the coalition does not slip up.

“At present, non-Malay voters have a relatively high level of support for Pakatan and are relatively stable.

“Basically, this situation will remain unless the Pakatan federal government slips up. I believe that in the short term, more than 70% non-Malays still support them,” said Phoon Wing Keong.

Despite it being nearly six months after the general election, the new opposition was still disorganised and non-Malay voters do not have a better alternative, said the Southern University College lecturer.

Phoon’s observations were backed by the recent four by-elections in Sg Kandis, Sri Setia, Balakong and Port Dickson, where the majority of non-Malay voters voted for the PH candidates despite of the lower voter turnouts.

In the May elections, Barisan Nasional estimated that 93% of Chinese and 63% Indians voted PH.

Non-Malay voters have no alternatives even if they are not satisfied with some of the new policies from PH, Phoon said.

They can rationalise some of the unpopular decisions, such as not recognising UEC or replacing GST with SST, as racial, religious and political sensitivities that still exist despite the change of government, he said.

“But for most parts, MCA and MIC just haven’t proven themselves to be a capable opposition party yet,” said Phoon.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang, meanwhile, said non-Malay voters have become a stable source of support for PH.

But he cautioned against taking the support for granted.

“The main reason why non-Malay voters still back Pakatan is because they want to see improvements in policy and government, and they believe the government can do it.

“But not all the different ministries have performed well yet and the government must explain their problems to the voters,” said Lim.

Penang Institute’s Dr Wong Chin Huat said MCA’s and MIC’s strength was due to the power of incumbency and government.

And as such, it was expected that their support would decline along with the loss of power, said Wong.

Chinese voters previously feared change as they were largely blamed for the May 13 racial riots although the Alliance lost even more Malay votes in 1969, Wong said.

“The Chinese used to fear change,” said Wong.

The 2008 general election results were unintentional as BN had garnered 91% of the parliamentary seats then, he said.

“There was no danger of a change in government then. But after voters saw that change in state governments (Perak, Selangor, Penang and Kedah) could be peaceful, their confidence grew.

“The fear of chaos following elections had disappeared and the Chinese support for BN declined from 30% in 2008 to 20% in 2013 to finally to 10% in 2018,” said Wong.

The current situation of where the majority race vote is split while the minorities are united ensure that the kingmakers are no longer the minority voters, he added.

“The kingmakers now are middle Malay voters.

“If the Malay voters are not open to change, it would have been impossible for the non-Malay voters to do anything.”

Although, minority rights have improved under PH, there are those who are still disappointed by the speed of reform.

“But they also know that not voting or picking the opposition will only strengthen PAS and Umno, which is undesirable, too. The new scenario of changing kingmakers requires the more participation by the middle Malays and non-Malays,” said Wong. – October 29, 2018.