MALAYSIA: POLITICS - Ruling party struggles to appeal to ethnic Chinese voters as a support swings towards the opposition groups, which could cause the government to lose seats in key states in the upcoming election

Record ID: 327789

  • Title: MALAYSIA: POLITICS - Ruling party struggles to appeal to ethnic Chinese voters as a support swings towards the opposition groups, which could cause the government to lose seats in key states in the upcoming election
  • Date: 4th June 2012
  • Summary: KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (RECENT - MAY 29, 2012) (REUTERS) PARTY FLAGS ERECTED AT KUALA LUMPUR STREET PARTY FLAGS OF NATIONAL COALITION (BLUE) AND PAN-MALAYSIA ISLAMIC PARTY (GREEN) AMPANG, SELANGOR STATE, MALAYSIA (RECENT - MAY 29, 2012) (REUTERS) RESIDENTS GATHERING IN A PARK FLAG OF OPPOSITION PARTY, PEOPLE'S JUSTICE PARTY (SOUNDBITE) (CANTONESE) ETHNIC CHINESE VOTER, WOON CHIN KUEN SAYING: "From what I see as how they are dealing with issues, this is a very corrupted government. They give out money when election is around the corner, giving out a few hundreds (ringgit) to anyone on the street.... buying votes with so much money. Election year give them a perfect excuse to covert corruption." CHINESE TEMPLE CHINESE FOOD STALL KAJANG, SELANGOR STATE, MALAYSIA (RECENT - MAY 25, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF A MALAY-LANGUAGE SECONDARY SCHOOL SIGNBOARD HANGING ON A SCHOOL GATE, SHOWING THE PROPER ATTIRE TO BE WORN
  • Embargoed: 19th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Malaysia
  • Country: Malaysia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8LLEQMTIFML9A5AFATTGV4EUY
  • Story Text: Ethnic Chinese voters, upset over policies that favour majority Malays, have become increasingly alienated from Malaysia's ruling coalition, raising the risk of racial polarisation and a slowdown in the pace of reforms.
    The Southeast Asian nation's 6.5 million ethnic Chinese turned heavily to the opposition in 2008 polls, handing the National Front, which has ruled uninterrupted since independence from Britain in 1957, its worst election showing ever.
    With elections likely later this year, the government has failed to reverse the tide with voters like Woon Chin Kuen.
    "From what I see as how they are dealing with issues, this is a very corrupted government. They give out money when election is around the corner, giving out a few hundreds (ringgit) to anyone on the street.... buying votes with so much money. Election year give them a perfect excuse to covert corruption," said Woon, who lives in a Chinese neighbourhood in the suburbs of Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur.
    Malaysia has seen ethnic Chinese voting with their feet-- choosing to leave the country for better prospects aboard, including to neighbour and rival Singapore, in a troubling brain drain of talent and capital.
    "The students were disappointed (with the education policy). Most of them stay abroad after tertiary education and never come back. Even if they come back they will be treated unfairly due to the country's policy, making them feel even more despair," said a Chinese educationalist Yap Sin Tian.
    Chinese disillusionment is straining relations within the ruling coalition, complicating Prime Minister Razak Najib's efforts to reverse the shocking losses four years ago. Najib has rolled back some repressive security laws in an effort to appeal to middle-class, urban voters but his reforms have not gone far enough for many Chinese.
    Still, some analysts think Chinese voters could be shooting themselves in the foot if Najib looses too much support and power is handed back to right-wingers within United Malays Nationalist Organisation (UMNO). Najib's reform programmes could be at risk. The three-party opposition alliance is seen as unlikely to win enough seats to form a government.
    One factor driving Chinese voters from the ruling coalition is they now have a viable alternative following the opposition alliance's unprecedented takeover of five state governments in 2008, including the northwestern coastal state of Penang, one of Malaysia's biggest manufacturing hubs.
    One analyst said the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the opposition's ethnic Chinese party, is capturing the imagination of the Chinese voters.
    Penang's Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is a veteran of Malaysia's hardball politics and the country's first ethnic Chinese state leader. He is credited with cutting debt and attracting a flood of high-tech investments.
    Ethnic Malay businesses still get the lion's share of state contracts, but Lim says his move to make all public tenders open through a computerized system has cut down on the cronyism that annoys Malaysians of all races.
    "We have broken the myth that Malay contractors cannot compete on the open market. They can, because 70 percent of the contracts won under open tenders are won by Malay contractors. And it only goes to show that Malay contractors can compete. It is only UMNO cronies who cannot compete," said Lim.
    After taking over in 2009, Najib signaled he would take a bolder approach on dismantling affirmative action. But so far his new model, introduced in 2010, has been short on policy implementation with little change to the core privileges that often benefit well-connected Malays more than the poor.
    Najib has tried to unite the country with a highly touted programme called "1Malaysia". His efforts, however, have often been undercut by his own party, whose conservative wing has dug in its heels over protecting Malay privileges.
    Analysts say the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) could see its seats slashed in the coming elections, paying the price for corruption scandals in the ruling coalition and perceptions it has failed to defend Chinese interests.
    MCA leader Chua Soi Lek acknowledged the party leadership had been too "low profile."
    "No political party including DAP can be a political superman that can solve all the problem of the Chinese community. Even the prime minister cannot solve all the problem in this country. Two, to convince the Chinese that MCA in the government is still relevant that all the Chinese problem whether at the state or federal level is still being raised by MCA," said Chua.
    A survey by the Merdeka Center in February showed that the government's approval rating was the lowest amongst the Chinese.
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