IN 2015-2016, when the opposition was still in disarray and Najib Razak was popular, I argued that for Pakatan Harapan to succeed, DAP must understand that it could never exorcise its image of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam.

As much as DAP denied such allegations, they were certainly not baseless, not when the party relied on rabble-rousers like “Superman” Hew Kuan Yau to speak at its rallies.

Hew could always count on the fanatical support of his Chinese supporters. He was constantly protesting that his speeches were either mistranslated or taken out of context. Nevertheless, his profanity, prejudicial statements, tactless nicknames, and fear-mongering had never endeared him to me. Even as a Chinese, listening to his speeches made me feel deeply uncomfortable.

A hard-earned second shot at the government has finally endowed DAP with political responsibility and a chance to shed its chauvinistic image.

This was why Lim Guan Eng was not even considered for a cabinet post while DAP has done the right thing by finally stopping Hew from speaking at the PH rallies.

DAP finally understands that it must allay the fears of the Malays if it is to be able to serve as a component of the government.

Whether the fears are unfounded is inconsequential.

As long as those fears are not vanquished, they would hang like a Damocles’ sword over the head of DAP, allowing political opponents to easily turn the Malays against them.

On the other side, the same criticism could be levied against Perikatan Nasional (PN), which is now dominated by the increasingly hardline PAS.

Despite becoming arguably the first choice of many Malays, the Islamist party does not even pretend to try to salvage its standing among non-Malays.

If the likes of Hew represented the bygone era of chauvinism in DAP, then the current PAS has its very own Hews in its president Abdul Hadi Awang and Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, whose inflammatory rhetoric and narrow views have made capturing even 5% of the Chinese votes seem an impossible task.

PAS, of course, is more politically savvy than we could imagine, and this doubling down of Malay identity and Islam at the expense of minorities is perhaps a strategy devised to capture 100% of the Malay support and become Umno’s natural successor.

However, winning every seat in Kelantan, Terengganu and even Pahang while getting decimated everywhere else does not make Hadi look like prime minister material or his party a feasible government for a multiracial country.  This is not accounting for the damage that has been done our country by PAS’ refusal to tone down its rhetoric.

The minority population is indeed dwindling, but it is still relevant for at least the next 10 years.

Any chance of PAS getting a modicum of Chinese support in the upcoming state elections was vaporised when Gerakan president Dominic Lau was asked to leave a PAS rally in a deeply humiliating manner.

It was a microcosm of what is to come for the non-Malays should a government fully led by PAS become reality.

This was a case where a public apology from PAS would not suffice. Chinese voters would have already made up their minds about PAS.

This could have repercussions beyond Penang. PN’s prospects of capturing Selangor would be that much harder now.

It is worth emphasising that this should not be the case because not everyone in the Chinese community is fond of PH and Barisan Nasional.

It is ironic that Chinese votes should be up for grabs when PH has Anwar Ibrahim as its prime minister.

The shoddy alliance with BN coupled with the fact that Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was appointed as the deputy prime minister clearly has not sat well with some Chinese.

While it is impossible for PN to upset the odds and secure the bulk of Chinese support, I believe the community could be tempted to vote for PN this time, so long as the coalition leaders are moderate.

However, PAS has never contemplated that side of politics, and it is regrettable that at a time of democratisation and the flourishing of multi-party politics, the Chinese are again left with no choice but PH. – August 6, 2023.

* Kenneth Cheng has always been interested in the interplay between human rights and government but more importantly he is a father of two cats, Tangyuan and Toufu. When he is not attending to his feline matters, he is most likely reading books about politics and human rights or playing video games. He is a firm believer in the dictum “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”.