KT by-election will be test of Malay sentiment

By Shannon Teoh

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 - The Kuala Terengganu by-election will be more than just about one more notch in Pakatan Rakyat's aim to form the government but it will also show just how effective Umno has been in regaining the Malay ground.

PKR's strategy chief Saifuddin Nasution told The Malaysian Insider that as the debate on Ketuanan Melayu, or Malay Supremacy, rages on in the country, the by-election will show if what he calls Umno’s scare tactics has worked.

"This will test the effectiveness of Umno's non-stop tactic of scaremongering in the Malay community," he said, referring to the idea being mooted that a PR government would sell out the Malays.

As soon as Deputy Education Minister Datuk Razali Ismail passed away on Nov 28, both coalitions had begun to gear up for only the second by-election since the March 8 general election.

The first, in Permatang Pauh, saw Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim sweep to victory by increasing the majority gained in the general election, ending his 10-year exile from Parliament.

However, that was a mixed electorate and also his hometown constituency. Kuala Terengganu, with Malays making up 90 per cent of the 80,000-strong electorate, was won by Razali by just 628 votes on March 8 and will provide a stern examination of both coalitions' support within the crucial Malay community.

Soon after its setback in the 12th general election, where Barisan Nasional ceded its two-thirds control of Parliament and the governments of five states, some Umno leaders have been telling the Malays that Anwar and his colleagues in the opposition cannot be trusted to safeguard their position.

Umno continued to criticise the former Deputy Prime Minister's stand on the New Economic Policy and the debate on the social contract pertaining to Malay rights, Malay Rulers, Islam as the official religion and Bahasa Malaysia as the national language.

Publicly, PR politicians dismissed the campaign, saying that Malays would be wise to Umno's dirty tricks campaign. But certain quarters in Pas also continue to harp on Malay-Muslim issues such as Bumiputera quotas and alcohol sales while PKR leaders including Anwar, its de facto leader, have had to allay fears of Malays being sidelined on more than one occasion.

On Sept 8, Anwar, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang and Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang signed an agreement guaranteeing that all three parties would uphold Malay rights, in the clearest acknowledgment so far that they are not fully secure on the Malay ground.

Saifuddin also accepted that this may well be a referendum on the acceptance of Anwar by those in the Malay belt area.

A Merdeka Centre poll in September also showed that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has 50 per cent more Malays backing him as a better Prime Minister candidate than Anwar.

The sodomy charges, both now and from 10 years ago, also continue to weigh on the minds of conservative Malays who show more susceptibility to be influenced by the allegations.

But Pas, a nearly exclusively Malay-Muslim party, is in a position to make a firm stand on its alliance with the rest of PR in terms of their readiness to accept Anwar as Prime Minister-in-waiting.

The perception has been that the more conservative faction in Pas, headed by president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and also Terengganu chief Datuk Mustafa Ali, is not at ease with the full backing given to Anwar.

With both of these leaders considered to be the party's mainstay in Terengganu, a by-election for a Pas candidate in the state capital backed by PKR's election machinery may seal many loose ends in the opposition's constant battle to consolidate its ranks.