While Pakatan may not have achieved its goal of winning a majority of parliament seats to form the next government in Putrajaya, it cannot be denied that we have made significant strides as a coalition in this 13th General Election. It was a “Malaysian tsunami” and not a “Chinese tsunami” which increased Pakatan’s parliament seats from 82 in 2008 to 89 in 2013 and which increased Pakatan’s state seats from 197 in 2008 to 230 in 2013. The fact that Pakatan managed to increase its share of parliament and state seats is commendable given the hundreds of millions of Ringgit that were spent by the Barisan Nasional (BN) on free dinners and goodies and to print lies and falsehoods in the mainstream press in order to propagate a disgusting and morally reprehensible politics based on fear.
In many parts of the country, Pakatan won seats in areas that were previously considered as BN strongholds and took down many big BN guns in Malay majority areas.
In P36 Kuala Terengganu (89% Malay), PAS won this seat with an increased majority of 10785 votes compared to a majority of 2631 for the 2009 by-elections.
In P9 Alor Setar (61% Malay), PKR won this seat with a majority of 1873 and defeated former Minister of Housing and Local Government, Chor Chee Heung.
In P74 Lumut (51% Malay) which includes over 10,000 navy voters, PKR won this seat with a thumping majority of 8168 after narrowly losing this seat by 298 votes in 2008 and defeated former Minister of Transport, Kong Cho Ha. In P113 Sepang (57% Malay), PAS won this seat with a majority of 1104 after losing this seat with 4849 votes in 2008 and defeated Selangor BN coordinator Mohd Zin bin Mohammed.
In P174 Penampang (66% Sabah Bumiputera), PKR won this seat with a thumping majority of 10216 votes after losing this seat by 3063 votes in 2008 and defeated former Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities.
In the state of Johor, the BN fortress was broken with Pakatan winning 5 parliament and 18 state seats. Pakatan could not have won these seats only with Chinese support.
For example PAS won the 54% Malay state seat of N21 Parit Yaani with a majority of 1188 after losing this seat by 3857 votes in 2008. PAS also won the 40% Malay state seat of N41 Puteri Wangsa with a majority of 3469 after losing this seat by 5721 votes in 2008.
In my own state seat of P162 Gelang Patah, my winning majority of 14762 could not have been achieved without a sizeable support from the Malay voters. In the polling stations under the Nusajaya state seat, for example, which is a 47% Malay state seat, I won almost 48% of the popular vote, an increase of 6% from the 2008 general elections.
Najib and Chua have also conveniently forgotten that in the state of Sabah, Pakatan won 12 state seats, up from just 1 in 2008. And 5 of these seats were Sabah Bumiputera / mixed seats: N4 Matunggong, N7 Kadamaian, N9 Tamparuli, N13 Inanam and N20 Moyog.
Pakatan Rakyat has campaigned based on a Politics of Hope during this 13th General Election in contrast to the dirty tactics employed by BN to continue their propagation of the Politics of Fear. I am confident that further analysis will show that there has been a noticeable shift in the support for Pakatan Rakyat across the country by voters from all races. And I am confident that the Barisan Nasional is at the end of its days as the federal government.