One Sarawakian’s view of Bagan Pinang and the Umno revival
The newspapers are full of Umno triumphalism. Umno’s ecstasy is overwhelming: you’d think they had managed to take back Perak by a popular vote.
Umno’s victory in the Bagan Pinang by-election has put some spring back into Umno’s goose-steps at their 60th General Assembly.
Many pundits have argued that Umno is winning back the trust of the Chinese and Indians. There may be a tiny kernel of truth in this.
Since Pakatan Rakyat (PR) have been bickering publicly over beer raids and municipal councils, a proportion of the Indian and Chinese population may, indeed, have voted against PAS to show their displeasure with certain pea-brained squabblers. But a vote against PR’s loudmouths is hardly a vote for Umno.
Throughout Umno’s ongoing General Assembly, speakers have tried to capitalise on this perceived swing among non-Malay voters, back towards Umno and the BN.
Khairy Jamaluddin, for example, tried to make Umno’s bigotry more palatable to non-Malays by calling for “Malay leadership”, instead of “Malay dominance”. We can translate that to “Umno leadership”, without having to rely on the crippled MCA, MIC, Makkal Sakti or anyone else. It is hard, though, to make the case for “Umno leadership” winning hearts in Malaysia, when Umno’s leaders are so sleazy.
Najib then made his usual plea for Umno not to indulge in corruption and money politics, ignoring the ugly example set by Umno’s man of the hour, Bagan Pinang winner Isa Samad.
The Umno speeches have been designed for sound-bites and headlines. Najib is fully aware that corruption cannot be eradicated in Umno. Najib’s denouncement of money politics is as useless as trying to talk a shoal of sharks out of a feeding frenzy. This chit-chat is especially useless, when the Great White Shark is doing the talking.
Umno needs a reality check
Umno’s spin datuks in the mainstream newspapers have celebrated in an orgy of Umno adulation, hailing Umno’s return to popularity and predicting more victories. These newspaper commentators should return to earth: they are as detached from reality as ever. They have such a version of the street, to paraphrase, as the street hardly understands.
They should remember that the BN has lost 7 by-elections and won only 2, in Bagan Pinang and Batang Ai, since the slap in the face dealt to Umno and the BN in the last General Election.
Of course, by-elections are very different creatures from General Elections, but if this by-election trend carries forward to the next General Election in 2013, and BN wins only 2 out of every 9 Parliamentary seats, the BN would hold only 49 seats, and Pakatan Rakyat 173!
Parallels with Batang Ai
There were several interesting comparisons to be made between the Bagan Pinang Umno victory and Sarawak BN’s Batang Ai by-election victory over PKR in March this year.
Firstly, there were the usual promises of big spending and “development” projects for a mostly rural population. Money and party labour were pumped into the constituency in a concentrated effort, only possible in a by-election.
Secondly, tinkering with voting lists was alleged in both by-elections. Having said that, the irregularities in the postal votes in Bagan Pinang and missing names in voter lists would not, in all likelihood, not have made much difference to the final outcome, since both victories were by huge margins. But the vote-stuffing helped with ballooning majorities.
Thirdly, the predominantly rural voters in both Bagan Pinang and Batang Ai appear to have remained tied to Umno and BN’s platform of paternalistic politics. The rural populations seem to accept BN’s rhetoric that BN = GOVERNMENT. And rural voters seem to accept BN’s cynical claim that only a BN government can deliver development, since only the BN has been in power in Negeri Sembilan and Sarawak since colonial days.
