The politics of race in Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau
PR supremo Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has already announced at a dinner function in Cheng, in Malacca on Monday night that they would field an Indian candidate in Bukit Selambau, the seat vacated by V. Arumugam on Monday.
By Baradan Kuppusamy, The Malaysian Insider
The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has already fired a early salvo in the battle for the Bukit Gantang parliamentary and Bukit Selambau state by-elections.
It is looking likely that Datuk Nizar Jamalludin will be fielded in Bukit Gantang and in Bukit Selambau, a yet unnamed Indian.
PR supremo Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has already announced at a dinner function in Cheng, in Malacca on Monday night that they would field an Indian candidate in Bukit Selambau, the seat vacated by V. Arumugam on Monday.
Bukit Selambau is a Malay-majority seat given by PKR to PKR candidate Saiful Izham Ramli to contest in the March 8 general elections but his nomination papers were rejected on technicalities.
Subsequently Arumugam, an independent was converted into the opposition candidate.
He easily defeated S. Krishnan of the MIC/BN by a majority of 7,695 votes in an indication of the multi-racial appeal of the PKR and the ugly public mood then against the ruling coalition.
Bukit Selambau has 34,977 voters with about 50 per cent of them Malays, 30 per cent Indians and 20 per cent Chinese.
Arumugam, 55, a retired mechanic from the Royal Malaysian Air Force, resigned after coming under severe pressure for allegedly committing bigamy.
But his resignation, which came on the same day PAS MP for Bukit Gantang Roslan Shaharum died of a heart attack, is indeed a major challenge all round — for PR, BN and personally for Anwar and Prime Minister-designate Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
The Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau campaign will affect each other as both elections are expected to be held simultaneously.
Anwar has scored first — a major public relations exercise — by announcing early that an Indian candidate would be fielded in Bukit Selambau, a seat previously marked for a Malay PKR leader.
Saiful, the original PKR candidate last year, would be deeply disappointed as the impending by-election could significantly advance his political career.
Fielding an Indian is a master stroke of sacrifice on the part of the PKR and advances the PR agenda not only in Bukit Selambau but also in Bukit Gantang where nine per cent of the 57,000 odd voters are Indians.
They would welcome the PKR generosity and would likely return the favour.
However if PR fields one of the unsavoury characters now populating Kedah PKR it would backfire easily.
Some of the characters are opportunists and political adventurers with a long black history behind them.
One of the reasons for the spate of defections from PKR in recent weeks is the poor quality of candidates chosen to contest in the heat of the March 8 general elections.
It would be another disaster and an unforgivable one at that, if PKR fields a candidate with the right skin colour and “loyalty to certain PKR leaders” but later sell himself to the highest bidder.
In Bukit Gantang, if PAS agrees with PKR and DAP and fields Nizar, who has become something of a celebrity in Perak and elswhere, it would be a double whammy.
As an aggrieved party recently sacked by subterfuge, Nizar would have an easy time convincing voters he is a victim and needs voter support.
He can easily turn the by-election around into an issue of maruah and urged voters to teach the Umno/BN a lesson.
The Bukit Gantang seat, an Umno stronghold, was once held by Gerakan’s Tan Lian Hoe as part of the BN seat sharing formula.
Tan, the Gerakan Wanita chief who ran into some controversy recently for describing Malays as “immigrants as well” defeated Dr Lo Lo Ghazali from PAS in the 2004 general election.
Then the seat reverted back to Umno but Datuk Azim Zabidi, the Bank Simpanan Nasional chairman, lost it to the late Roslan Shaharum by a majority of 1,556 votes.
Azim would want to recontest but he is seen as too close to Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi and his son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin.
BN’s problems could be compounded if Azim is fielded again.
However a tantalising possibility is whether Umno/BN can take a leaf out of PKR and allow either an MCA or Gerakan member to contest in Bukit Gantang, an Umno seat, in the same way PKR is giving a “Malay” seat to an Indian to contest in Bukit Selambau.
If this happens it would force everyone, including the racially mixed-electorate of Bukit Gantang, to rewrite their assumptions about our politics.
