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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [sangkancil] [MGG] Teluk Kemang By-election: The Winner Loses
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 12:21:16 +0800 (MYT)
From: "M.G.G. Pillai" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Sang Kancil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
CC: SK <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, SK-MGG <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The National Front candidate romped home, as expected, in the Teluk
Kemang by-election. It promised to gain a larger majority, but its
majority was reduced by 40 per cent. Despite the euphoria -- it took
precedence in local newspapers over President Assad's death -- the
National Front did not achieve what it set out to do. More than a
reduced margin of victory by 40 per cent from last November general
election results, it is 75 per cent less than its majority in 1995. The
National Front's threat of the Opposition candidate, from Parti Keadilan
Nasional, did not work. The trend is confirmed. The old National Front
argument that the National Front provides the best alternative to the
racuous opposition wears thin. The Negri Sembilan chief minister, Tan
Sri Isa Samad, promises a post-mortem. He could not understand how 53
per cent from the Lukut constituency, mostly Chinese, could vote for the
opposition. The Malay votes are split, as it was in November 1969, and
so the Indian votes.
Teluk Kemang voters did not accept the National Front's fears of
racist voting patterns or of the Opposition candidate, Mr Ruslan Kassim,
campaigning on a racist platform. Little changed between Teluk Kemang
in November 1999 and June 2000. What did is the sharp decline in the BN
majority between 1995 and 2000 -- from 21,015 to 9,972 to 5,972 over the
weekend. The Nipah virus and the destruction of the pig industry swung
the Chinese vote towards the opposition. The promised compensation was
not paid as promised in November, and only was when the byelection
loomed with the death of Mr S.A. Anbalagan. That after an official
policy of no pig farming in Lukut and elsewhere in Negri Sembilan added
to the Chinese woes. That it was a major election issue came from the
federal government's about-turn in re-allowing pig farming in the state.
But it was too late.
Irrelevant issues cropped up during the byelection. The MIC
president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, churlishly demanded to know what
happened to the RM10,000 he contributed to the DAP stalwart, P. Patto
memorial Fund, and Mrs Patto's principled response that it would be
returned to him with interest did not help the National Front campaign.
It showed how petty the MIC leader was. No serious attempt to discuss
issues was made. The National Front candidate, Mr S. Sothinathan, was
a director of two of the three companies controlled by Dato' Samy Vellu
who highjacked eight of the 9 million Telekom shares allotted to the
MIC, the proceeds of which, Dato' Seri Samy Vellu said in Teluk Kemang,
was donated to the Malaysian Indian Education Fund (MIED) though no one
seems to be aware of this until now.
The campaign was conducted with the National Front, with its
control of the mass media, harping on irrelevant issues, one which got
many just switched off. Was Dato' Seri Samy Vellu's RM10,000 donation
more important than the MCA's diversion of RM40 million of public
donations and the RM200 million proceeds from the sale of RM200 ha?
However, the National Front may view it, the death of one affected by
the Nipah virus highlighted the National Front state and federal
government's supercilliousness in dealing with the human tragedy that
destroyed a RM1,000 million pig industry. The last minute
re-introducing of the pig industry is not serious believed by the pig
farmers of Bukit Pelanduk, after so many promises made but not provided.
So, despite no airing, the individual communities had their own
grievances against the National Front and the government, and reflected
it in their votes.
The Malay vote is divided. But it did not need Mr Ruslan Kassim to
ensure that. The Keadilan candidate in November 1999, Mr N.
Gopalakrishnan, had got as much Malay votes as Mr Ruslan did this time
around, and the Indian vote, as then, equally divided. What turned the
tables is the Chinese moving away from the BN. The MCA had threatened
the Bukit Pelanduk farmers that compensation for them would come only
with a hundred percent National Front victory for Negri Sembilan state
assemblymen and parliament. But this byelection was unexpected. And
the MCA was taught a lesson. Further threats could not work. Besides,
the lessons of the Sanggang by-election in Pahang was learnt and put to
good effect. There is no justification for the National Front to crow
about its victory, except that it retained it. That in itself should
not surprise. The first time the MIC candidate, Mr T. Mahima Singh, was
challenged, in 1969, he was defeated by the DAP's Dr A. Soorian. In
1959 and 1964, the opposition candidate turned up late to file his
nomination papers. But the realignment of electoral constituencies
after the May 1969 riots gave the MIC a lockhold on Teluk Kemang, which
until 1998 depended on the Malay votes to elect him. That is split,
since the affair of He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost.
So we come back to the larger picture of a resurgent Opposition,
with its fillip from the jailing of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The
underlying cultural frustration, especially amongst the Malay, with a
re-energised opposition, within the loose coalition called the Barisan
Alternatif, is not assuaged by statements of intent any more. As an
Opposition member of parliament said, cynically, when pig farming was
restored to Negri Sembilan: "Perhaps, we should pray for frequent
turnovers of National Front members of parliament and state assemblymen;
that way, at least some attempt would be made to provide what it
promised!" But several byelections are due. One is that for Jeli,
where the the then second finance minister, Dato' Mustapa Mohamed, lost.
The courts would either declare an irregularity in the voting, and
pronounce him as member of parliament or order fresh elections, given
the way so far byelections are conducted.
M.G.G. Pillai
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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