Has Malaysia moved past race-based politics? By-election will give first clue
An upcoming vote in Selangor will be watched closely to see if newly elected Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s ruling party has to move further away from its progressive agenda to hold ground
Malaysia’s first by-election since the May 9 polls, which saw the Barisan Nasional coalition cede power after more than six decades at the helm, will be seen as a litmus test for race-based politics and a measure of how much support the government has from the Malay electorate, which makes up 62 per cent of voters.
After the general election, race-based parties such as the Malaysian Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress became politically irrelevant, winning only three parliamentary seats between them. But if Pakatan Harapan loses the Sungai Kandis by-election in Selangor, its leaders may see the need to move to the right to hold ground, or potentially court the defection of United Malays National Organisation (Umno) parliamentarians. Umno, having nothing to lose, can play the race card to the hilt. A Pakatan Harapan defeat could carry far greater national implications than that of the seat’s value in Selangor itself.
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Sungai Kandis is one of Selangor’s 56 state seats, of which Pakatan Harapan won 51 during the elections. There are two more by-elections pending following the deaths of two assemblymen.
Pakatan Harapan’s candidate Mohd Zawawi Ahmad Mughni will be running in the August 4 polls in Selangor on a Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) ticket – Anwar Ibrahim’s party. The constituency’s incumbent, Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei, was also from PKR, winning the seat with a 12,480 vote majority in the May general elections before succumbing to cancer in July.
Meanwhile, Umno, now headed by former Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, is fielding Supreme Council member Lokman Noor Adam. Lokman, a former PKR member, has accused his old party of nepotism and cronyism. A third candidate, Murthy Krishmasamy, is running as an independent.