I had said at the close of the Tenang by-election campaign that Pakatan Rakyat would have cause to celebrate if it could achieve three of four aims – firstly, to debunk Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s boast of winning 5,000 majority in Tenang which he had described as a Barisan Nasional “fortress”; secondly, to slash the BN’s 2,492 majority won in the 2008 general election; and thirdly, to secure the votes of more than 55% of the Chinese electorate who voted for the PAS candidate in the 2008 general election.
The fourth aim is to win the Tenang by-election, which I had not considered as likely.
In the event, only two of three aims – debunking Muhyiddin’s boast of 5,000-vote majority and increasing Chinese voter support for the Pas/PR candidate from the previous 55% – were achieved in the by-election yesterday.
I have no doubt that all the three goals would have be achieved if not for the climatic disaster, resulting in incessant rain and heavy flooding aggravated by selective and discriminatory assistance given by various government agencies ferrying only Barisan Nasional voters to the polling stations. All this caused unprecedented low voter turnouts, especially in Chinese and Indian areas.
MCA leaders have claimed that BN has recaptured three of the four Chinese-dominant polling stations it had lost to the DAP in the 2008 general election but they have studiously avoided the issue of a higher percentage of Chinese voters in Tenang voting for the Pas/PR candidate in the by-election.
In the Bandar Labis Tengah centre, which has 95.7 of Chinese voters, Chinese voter support for Pas/Pakatan Rakyat had increased by 3.2% from 66.7% in 2008 to 69.9% in the by-election – despite a 20% reduction in the voter turnout.
Preliminary analysis show that there is a 10 per cent increase in the Chinese voter support to some 65% for the Pas/PR candidate in the by-election as compared to 55% in the 2008 general election.
The first question that arises after the Tenang by-election is whether, with the 10% increase of Chinese voter support for Pas/PR candidate, the MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek would have the political courage to tell UMNO that the increased Chinese support is not for hudud and Islamic state but for PR policies for change, justice, democracy and progress?
Or is Chua Soi Lek going to continue to misinterpret and distort the political wishes and hopes of the Tenang voters, by persisting in the false and fraudulent claim that the increased 65% of Chinese voter support for the PR candidate is support for hudud and Islamic state?
#1 by tak tahan on Monday, 31 January 2011 - 5:07 pm
The increase of chinese voters’s support for PR is MCA itself is no longer relevant to chinese community and no less to other community as well and it’s perceived as umno’s mere puppet.It’s president has no integrity and beyond hopeless case as he acts like Perkasa playing along with race and religion card.None by any comparison he can come close to be hailed as a pure bred leader.
#2 by pulau_sibu on Monday, 31 January 2011 - 5:45 pm
10% is a small number, could be around the level of fluctuation.
By looking at the situation in north Africa and middle-east, we wanted to ask why the reformasi led by Anwar did not materialise in a real change of the government? May be the people are more scared of the police than wanting to have a change.
These politicians kept linking race and religion to the votes. Sok Lei looked to be more hopeful in the beginning, but after a while, we saw that he is one of the same useless BN politicians. I doubt how MCA can improve under him.
#3 by wanderer on Monday, 31 January 2011 - 5:51 pm
The Chinese are solidly committed to “Huan” to the political landscape of Malaysia. It is the Indians that need to change their mindset or they will continue to be “Slaves” of the Self-claimed Ketuanan UMNO Melayu! As for the Malays, they will change once the
they realize they could not, indefinitely, survive in the modern world holding on to their clutches!
#4 by pulau_sibu on Monday, 31 January 2011 - 5:59 pm
In Sibu, we rejected SUPP and BN because of constant floodings. Look at Tenang, it is flooded, but majority of people still supported BN. What went wrong?
#5 by pulau_sibu on Monday, 31 January 2011 - 6:06 pm
We have enough experts from SUPP in SIbu to help Tenang with the flooding. Please contact Wong Soon Koh. All problems will be solved
#6 by yhsiew on Monday, 31 January 2011 - 8:57 pm
///The first question that arises after the Tenang by-election is whether, with the 10% increase of Chinese voter support for Pas/PR candidate, the MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek would have the political courage to tell UMNO that the increased Chinese support is not for hudud and Islamic state but for PR policies for change, justice, democracy and progress?///
I bet with my last ringgit; Chua Soi Lek would not tell his boss that the increased Chinese support is for change, justice, democracy and progress, lest he be replaced by somebody more knowledgeable.
We shall see how Chua Soi Lek’s rejection of the Islamic handshake custom affects Muslim votes in the 13th GE.
#7 by tak tahan on Monday, 31 January 2011 - 10:40 pm
CSL has been the most chanted champion cartoon story amongst our laughing stocks.I wonder what is this old man thinking ya?He wants us to die more than our present condition by listening to his doctorate priceless lecture.I wondered how much our fathers or grandfathers had to toil the soil to fork out their hard earned money for their childrens’s education and business opportunitiy sake.How could CSL still want to pull A either one..our leg to believe the lie when all this while still pretend to be Malaysian Chinese Association for chinese but in fact it should be referred as Malaysian Celup Association.
#8 by k1980 on Tuesday, 1 February 2011 - 7:49 am
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2954&Itemid=202
An Indonesian court found a popular singer guilty Monday of distributing sexually explicit materials showing himself and two women on the Internet and sentenced him to three and a half years in prison.
Why no jail sentence for Dirty Lek over here?
#9 by tak tahan on Tuesday, 1 February 2011 - 8:13 am
Cintanegara’s close bro ma,normal la.What better of do you expect from them.Norm,norm.
#10 by burn on Tuesday, 1 February 2011 - 9:02 am
10% increase of “MALAYSIAN” voter support for PR candidate in Tenang.
salam…