Mahkota presents an opportunity to non-Malays not to go to the polling centres without feeling guilty because their vote does not matter anyway.
Does anyone get a feeling the current Anwar administration, despite being less than 2 years old, actually feels extremely familiar as if it has been six decades? Yes, it feels and smells like the previous ruling Barisan Nasional government is running the show even though the driver is Pakatan Harapan chairman Anwar Ibrahim, whose job security depends on UMNO (the most dominant party of Barisan Nasional).
That’s a polite way to describe Prime Minister Anwar as subservient – even a lame duck – to the United Malays National Organization (UMNO). Anwar’s own party, PKR (People’s Justice Party), won only 31 parliamentary seats in the November 2022 General Election. That’s roughly the same as Barisan Nasional’s 30 seats. If PKR and UMNO (26 MPs) merge, they will become the biggest party (57 MPs).
Regardless of whether there is a secret preliminary study to merge both PKR and UMNO, or for Anwar to return to UMNO and lead the Malay nationalist party, the fact remains that PKR is a splinter party of UMNO and Anwar was the former UMNO deputy president before he was sacked in September 1998 by then-UMNO Supremo Mahathir Mohamad, effectively crushing Anwar’s ambition to become the 5th Prime Minister.
That’s why the Anwar government looks like the previous Barisan Nasional government. The domestic policy is pro-Malay, anti-Chinese (till election time), enrich-cronies and whatnot, whilst pro-Palestine, anti-Jews dominate its foreign policy. Corruption is business as usual in the government filled with double standards, hypocrisy – even increasing dictatorship and censorship.
It tastes like the UMNO regime when the prime minister says one thing and does another thing altogether – punishing only non-Muslims who touch on 3R (race, religion and royalty) issues, terrorising Chinese-owned businesses, laughing at the Indian community for being jealous of pro-Malay discrimination programmes, and of course, interfering in Chinese education, economy and religion.
Carrying the same UMNO DNA, the special chemistry between PKR and UMNO after the 2022 national polls that produced a hung parliament had allowed both PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and UMNO president Zahid Hamidi to strike a deal at lightning speed. The deal to form a Unity Government was just part of a bigger picture. The grand plan was to help UMNO regain the Malay support it had stunningly lost.
However, the more PKR helps UMNO to regain its traditional Malay voters, the more they have to bash Chinese-dominated DAP (Democratic Action Party). For 60 years before the defeat of the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional in 2022, the Chinese have been the punching bag for UMNO to sell the idea to the Malays that only UMNO-Malays can protect them.
That was why UMNO unleashed its Youth leader Akmal Salleh to attack the Chinese and DAP and whatever between them to impress the Malays, whilst UMNO and PKR leaders kept quiet and watched with popcorn. It also explains why PM Anwar, instead of reprimanding the UMNO chief troublemaker, has attacked DAP vice chairman Teresa Kok in the latest Jakim halal certification crisis.
It was exactly how UMNO-Malays used to attack MCA-Chinese till the latter became a pathetic eunuch whenever UMNO felt weak and needed to flex its muscles in front of the Malays. MCA would bend over and let its big brother screw it, before giving the thumbs-up, and repeat the disgusting drama until it didn’t work anymore as the Chinese community flocked to DAP.
Fresh from the August 2024 Nenggiri by-election, UMNO believes (or rather fantasizes) that the Malay support has returned. It captured 61% of the Malay votes, giving a bloody nose to the Islamist party PAS (who lent its candidate to partner Bersatu). UMNO leadership burst into wild celebration over the so-called “extraordinary victory”, although the real hero was an ATM machine.
If Nenggiri was a hard-fought battle, the upcoming Mahkota by-election would be a walk in the park for the Malay nationalist party. Even before a candidate could be identified and announced, UMNO has already started counting chickens before they hatch. Barisan Nasional was so confident of not only retaining the state seat but will do so with a bigger majority of at least 10,000 votes.
Here’s how they count the chickens. In the last state election in March 2022, Barisan’s candidate Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain (16,611 votes) won the seat with a 5,166-vote majority against candidates from Pakatan Harapan (11,445 votes), Perikatan Nasional (7,614 votes) and Warisan (555 votes). But Barisan managed to snatch the seat due to a low turnout (57% compared to the 2018 state election’s 84%).
Because now Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan are allies in the Unity Government, it’s assumed that the friendly’s 11,445 votes will be automatically transferred to UMNO, which will theoretically boost Barisan’s majority by more than 15,000-vote based on the same low turnout of 57%. If the turnout somehow shoots up to 84%, the majority could skyrocket by nearly 20,000 votes (votes which Pakatan captured in 2018).
No matter how, it’s a sure win for UMNO. On paper, it does not need any Chinese votes at all. Based on the 2022 state election results, Barisan alone can retain the Mahkota seat with a nearly 10,000-vote majority – even if all the Pakatan Harapan supporters stay at home and play mahjong or watch Netflix. Therefore, the 34% Chinese and 7% Indian voters in Mahkota can “safely boycott” the by-election this round.
Mahkota presents an opportunity for non-Malays not to go to the polling centres without feeling guilty because their vote does not matter anyway. Even in the worst-case scenario that UMNO loses the seat, which is impossible based on Akmal’s scientific calculation, the status quo will remain as UMNO won the Johor state election on March 12, 2022, with a super-majority. – Finance Twitter