No Chinese tsunami, say analysts

(The Sun Daily) – The Chinese are not expected to vote en bloc for Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in the March 23 Kajang by-election.

Political analysts have dismissed that a “Chinese tsunami” would influence the by-election, in reference to a term coined after a shift was detected among the Chinese community, away from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), in the 13th general election (GE13).

When contacted by theSun, Merdeka Centre research manager Tan Seng Keat said the community’s voting pattern change was a “paradigm shift on how (the voters) had perceived (BN) from the last general election”.

“I would not use the term ‘Chinese tsunami’ but it is a paradigm shift of how long they have (looked at) BN’s (performance as opposed to) Pakatan Rakyat,” he said.

“However, I hope that MCA will also show its strength as it cannot be seen as weak because it is a matter of showing its strength in terms of its leadership (after nine-months of non-performance),” he added.

Political analyst Prof James Chin also agreed with Tan’s statement, saying that during GE13, most Malaysian voters were looking forward to a regime change.

Chin, a political science lecturer, however, said DAP will be seeing votes coming from two prominent Chinese-based community groups – Jiao Zong (United Chinese School Teachers Association) and a learning establishment called New Era College.

“The two groups are champions of Chinese education and will deliver their votes from the Chinese community to DAP, not the MCA,” he added.

Kajang is a mixed constituency with 48% Malay, 41% Chinese and 10% Indian voters.

The constituency has 39,278 voters, including 1,197 early voters. Nomination day for the by-election is March 11.