KAMARULZAMAN Yunus is having a hard time convincing his neighbours in Kampung Beletik, deep in the Malay heartland of Jelai, to vote for Pakatan Harapan because its candidate is Indian.

“They tell me that they will not have a problem voting for PH if the candidate is not Indian. But because he is Indian, they won’t vote for him,” said Kamarulzaman, an activist with Amanah, the PH component party campaigning for M. Manogaran in the village.

The Malaysian Insight heard similar tales in many villages in the Jelai state constituency, a predominantly Malay area that makes up half of the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat. Jelai supplies 93% of the Malay votes for Cameron Highlands, PH strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming said.

“My friend told me that because the candidate is Indian, he’s not coming home to vote,” said another PH activist, who is having difficulty canvassing for support from the 2,800 voters in Felda Sungai Koyan Dua.

While it is mainly rice bowl concerns such as the plunge in palm oil and rubber priced and living allowances for Felda folk that are turning Malays against PH, racist attacks on Manogaran have had an effect on those who are prepared to give the government a chance.

In conversations with 10 Malay Muslims in Jelai, The Malaysian Insight was told that Manogaran’s ethnicity will have an impact on the Malay votes, which count for 33.7% of the total votes, for PH in Cameron Highlands.

The 10 interviewees are PH, Barisan Nasional, PAS activists as well as ordinary voters who confirmed Manogaran’s ethnic background is a talked about among locals when they debate over who to vote for on January 26.

In a by-election where PH’s victory is dependent on increasing Malay support from 9% to 30%, racist rhetoric against the administration can make a small but significant enough difference, said political analyst Mohd Azlan Zainal of the Ilham Centre.

“It’s a catalyst that can reinforce already negative feelings towards PH that are first borne out of economic concerns,” said Azlan, the centre’s executive director.

Racism by flyer

The Cameron Highlands by-election is a contest between Manogaran, BN’s Ramli Mohd Nor and independents Wong Seng Yee and Sallehudin Ab Talib.

According to political activists, Manogaran’s ethnicity became a political target after fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim’s death in December last year. Adib had succumbed to his wounds after being seriously injured in a riot outside a Hindu temple.

A PAS activist in Kampung Keledek told The Malaysian Insight that Manogaran’s ethnicity is a turn-off because of Adib’s death.

Although the government is conducting an inquest into his death, for most of the Malays in Jelai, Adib was severely beaten by Indian youths.

“Because Adib’s killers have not been caught, it confirms their suspicions that the PH government is biased towards non-Malays,” said the PAS official, who requested anonymity.

Racist rhetoric has been a staple in BN campaign arsenal against PH and the former has regularly painted the ruling coalition as anti-Malay and anti-Islam. Most of the vitriol is vague and aimed at the PH’s component party DAP.

But in Cameron Highlands, that racist rhetoric has unfortunately, been given a live target in the form of Manogaran.

What started as racist coffee shop talk among locals has ignited into the open as the official campaign nears its end at midnight on Friday. Fliers tying Manogaran to Adib’s death were found at a mosque in Kampung Keledek.

Manogaran has also had to address this in a ceramah on 23 January when he complained about the vitriol being used against him by the BN.

Aminuddin Abdul Jalil, a PH campaign director for the Lubuk Kulit polling district said compared to urban Malays, who are more politically savvy and exposed to other communities, it is harder to counter racism among rural Malays.

“They are not so connected to the world beyond their villages because their communities are remote,” said Aminuddin, from PH component party Amanah.

“For instance with Adib’s death, they don’t know the context behind how it occurred and because they are too pre-occupied with the day-to-day struggle of making ends meet, they are not bothered to look deeper into the issue.” – January 25, 2019.