Malaysia’s Ruling Coalition Wins One
The fundamentalist tide appears to have washed out in a by-election Islamists hoped to win
Among other things, the by-election was considered a test of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s attempts to woo ethnic Indian voters back to the Barisan. He appears to have succeeded, at least in the Bagan Pinang district.
Asia Sentinel
Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional coasted to a convincing by-election win Sunday in a state assembly constituency about 60 km south of Kuala Lumpur, dealing a blow to the hopes of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, which had won seven of eight previous by-elections since national elections in March of 2008.
Mohamad Isa Samad, a veteran United Malays National Organisation politician who had been suspended for three years from active party politics after being found guilty of vote-buying, won the seat by a plurality of 5.435 votes over Zulkelfy Mohd Ahmad, state commissioner for the fundamentalist Parti Islam se-Malaysia, or PAS, who received only 2,578. As in the national parliament, the Barisan had lost its two-thirds majority in the Negeri Sembilan statehouse, with its majority falling to 21 lawmakers to 15 for the opposition.
There were some incidents of stone and bottle throwing between UMNO and PAS members, according to the Malaysian state-owned news agency Bernama. Two individuals reportedly were detained, one from UMNO and one from PAS. Nearly 82 percent of the voters turned out, which election officials described as a disappointment – although in many western democracies an 80 percent turnout would be met with gratified astonishment. The election was described as clean and fair.
There are questions about what the victory means in the wider context of Malaysian politics. Umno appears to have forgotten about its promises of party reform in picking a tainted candidate who could win after a stringof electoral reverses. Isa was suspended for three years for vote-buying. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, among others, condemned UMNO for running corrupt candidates.
“Much as the likely win by Isa Samad in Bagan Pinang today would be welcomed by the leadership after the string of losses Umno has suffered, I am afraid what the nation needs is for Umno to lose again,” said Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a longtime party stalwart and opponent of the current Umno ruling powers. “This is because again we have fielded a candidate proven to be corrupt. A win by Isa would translate into an endorsement of corruption-as-usual within the party and the government that it leads.”
Both Razaleigh and Mahathir, however, are regarded as largely spent forces within the party.
