Malaysia by-election: a win for Barisan Nasional – and racial politics
- Pakatan Harapan’s loss of Semenyih, a seat it flipped in May general election, shows dissatisfaction with slow progress on pre-election promises, experts say
- It also underlines the ongoing influence of race-based politics
On Saturday, after a 14-day campaign period, Barisan Nasional’s candidate – Zakaria Hanafi of the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) – won the seat for Semenyih, a state constituency in Selangor, by 1,914 votes.
He beat the Pakatan Harapan candidate – Muhammad Aiman Zanali of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu) – and two independents.
His victory meant Semenyih, about 20km from Kuala Lumpur, became the first constituency to have been flipped by the Barisan Nasional since the Pakatan Harapan toppled it from power in May after more than six decades of uninterrupted rule.
“Pakatan Harapan is perceived to be less sensitive to the daily needs of the people,” said Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi, a political analyst at University Malaya’s Institute of Malay Studies. “This is a response to Pakatan failing to live up to pre-election promises and its current low performance, with little consensus between [its component parties].”
He said the result also showed multi-ethnic Malaysia was not ready to let go of race-based communal politics, despite Pakatan Harapan’s calls for a Malaysia that is not divided along racial lines.
“The reality is that politics based on ethnicity and religion is the core of Malaysia’s political foundation.”