PERIKATAN Nasional has not only retained the Sungai Bakap seat in the just-concluded by-election but also improved its performance with a larger majority.

Abidin Ismail of PAS gained 14,489 votes, defeating Pakatan Harapan’s Joohari Ariffin, who secured 10,222 votes. The winning margin of 4,267 votes was almost three times more than that of the last election.

The state seat fell vacant with the death of PAS’ Nor Zamri Latiff, who garnered a majority vote of 1,563 against PKR’s Nurhidayah Che Rose in the last state election in this Malay-majority constituency.

Of the 39,279 registered voters in the Sungai Bakap constituency, about 59% are said to be Malay, 23% Chinese, 17% Indian, and 0.71% others.

The polling results say a lot about the political standing of PKR and Umno in the eyes of the Malay community.

Several factors have been attributed to PN’s triumph and PH-BN’s loss. They include local, national, and global issues.

As in other parts of Malaysia, local communities in the constituency are grappling with cost-of-living issues, the impact of subsidy rationalisation, and inflation.

That is why it was ill-advised of Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli to joke about making a surprise announcement of petrol subsidy rationalisation prior to the by-election. Such a surprise wouldn’t be pleasant, especially for those finding it difficult to put food on the table.

Such misplaced levity could very well have helped some fence-sitters to decide against voting for PH.

The proposed sale of Malaysian Airports Holding Bhd to Global Infrastructure Partners, which is linked to BlackRock and said to be supportive of the Zionist regime in Israel, might not have gone down well with the Malay community in the area

It’s also possible that some Umno voters had cast protest votes against the PH-BN candidate partly because they’re uncomfortable with Umno’s collaboration with DAP in the unity government, thereby further eroding Umno’s influence within the Malay community.

Water supply disruptions, traffic congestion, and the infestation of flies in the constituency appeared to have played a role in encouraging some of the voters to cast protest votes, especially if there is a perception of uneven development in the state that stacked them against many odds.

Compared to the Malay voters, the turnout rate of Chinese voters was considerably low, indicating frustration with the unity government over unfulfilled portions of reforms that could have benefited them, as well as the targeted fuel subsidy.

It seems that such unhappiness was also prevalent among the Chinese outside of Penang.

At a dinner banquet in Selayang attended by several thousand people, presumably many of them Chinese, there was a round of applause when Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng announced the Sungai Bakap by-election results.

Similarly, segments of Indian voters are also unhappy over their socio-economic status and such issues as education.

For Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, the political shift of the non-Malay voters in the state is cause for concern. They might not necessarily be a “safe deposit.”

This is despite the Madani government, for instance, guaranteeing matriculation slots to non-Malay students who achieve 10As. Critics, however, questioned whether there was really a substantive change to this matriculation enrolment.

And this is also despite Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad making a pre-election promise to build a new hospital adjacent to the 130-year-old Hospital Sungai Bakap.

The lampooning of Nibong Tebal PAS vice-chairman Abidin Ismail, who was wrongly branded as a candidate who acquired an International Organisation for Standards certificate, apparently cut no ice with many locals.

Perhaps the takeaway from this episode is that the common people should not be taken for granted. – July 7, 2024.