The Chinese community’s snub of Barisan Nasional (BN) that continued in yesterday’s Sarawak polls from Election 2008 will force Datuk Seri Najib Razak to delay calling for general elections any time soon, say analysts.
The prime minister and BN chairman will also have to fine tune his 1 Malaysia concept to win over the community that is dissatisfied with decreasing control of the country’s economy and the lack of meritocracy apart from shrinking public space for worship and personal expression.
“The 1 Malaysia concept is lost among the Chinese...they still reject BN,” political analyst Dr Agus Yusoff told The Malaysian Insider in an immediate reaction to the Sarawak election results.
BN won 55 out of the 71 seats in the Sarawak assembly, down from 63 it held when the assembly was dissolved last month. The DAP doubled its presence to 12 seats while PKR tripled its representation to three despite contesting 49 seats. An independent also took a seat.
In Election 2008, PR won a total of 82 out of 222 federal seats with the DAP winning 28 seats, mainly in urban areas where there are large communities of Chinese, who decided to throw out BN’s lawmakers for the opposition party’s representatives.
Agus believed the elections results only proved that voters in Sarawak were more racially divided than ever, based on the voting trend available thus far.
“It’s still racially-divided, even more now than ever. I do not think that Najib would want to call for elections in the immediate future.
“The victory in Sarawak does not showcase BN’s strength...the only thing it has proven is that BN has kept the Malay-Bumiputera votes while Pakatan, through DAP gets the Chinese votes,” he added.
The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) lecturer said that BN’s failure to maintain Sarawak’s “fixed deposit” status was because of many reasons, and this would deter Najib from calling for general elections.
According to Agus, the loss of Chinese votes among BN showed that Najib’s 1 Malaysia concept of “inclusiveness” was lost among the Sarawakians.
“BN and DAP are now fighting for the race seats...its shows that his 1 Malaysia concept has failed. The dismal support among the Chinese needs to be taken note of before he (Najib) calls for polls,” said Agus.
The academic also cited the three-cornered fights between BN, PR and SNAP (Sarawak National Party) as a major reason why PR had failed to secure more seats.
“If it were a straight fight between PR and BN, the results might have been different,” said Agus who also stressed that PR had still made “commendable” progress with its wins in the state elections.
Najib himself expressed confidence the Sarawak victory was a positive sign for the upcoming general elections, following BN’s 55 seat win.
“We need to keep increasing this momentum, what’s important is that we maintain support so that it can be translated in the next general elections,” Najib told reporters last night.
BN retained its two-thirds majority in the Sarawak state assembly and at 10.55pm last night was declared the winner for 55, or 75 per cent, of the 71 seats in the Sarawak legislature. In the 2006 elections, it won 62 out of the 71 seats. Initial estimates showed that BN’s popular vote went down from 62.93 per cent in 2006 to 55.24 per cent in yesterday’s polling.
Merdeka Centre director Ibrahim Suffian agreed with Agus’ arguments.
“Even though Najib talks about 1 Malaysia and inclusiveness for all, there is a paradox between the concept and its actual implementation, and is something which has been exploited by his opponents.
“Looking at the results so far...there is a divide between Muslims and non-Muslims,” Ibrahim told The Malaysian Insider.
Like Agus, Ibrahim too pointed out that PR’s 15- seat win in the hornbill state should not be taken lightly by BN.
“Pakatan’s win is significant especially in a state which is considered BN’s safety deposit,” said Ibrahim.
The analyst said that the Najib factor had contributed to BN’s narrow win last night.
“Najib sensed the importance of his presence and had personally gone and campaigned in Sarawak, along with his resources...so for what he did, he is being rewarded for his efforts.
“It could have been worse without Najib,” said Ibrahim.
