Nizar and Perak Speaker Sivakumar anxiously await the results last night

I left Perak this afternoon after lunch at a kopitiam restaurant in Taiping with much to think about (and I don’t mean just the cendol).

Bukit Gantang ushers in a new phase in Malaysian politics. Ethnic and religious barriers were broken here as the Chinese and others voted in droves for Pas. Much of it was due to the more moderate face of Pas projected by its popular candidate, Nizar, and the party’s makeover “Pas for all”. The close cooperation among Pakatan parties, and more importantly, the interaction of ordinary people on the ground also contributed to the breakthrough.

In staging its power grab in Perak, Umno may have committed its biggest blunder. By ousting Nizar, it allowed him to be chosen as a candidate for a parliamentary seat, thus propelling him to a bigger stage – Parliament, where he will now be a regular face in front of a national audience.

His overwhelming acceptance among minority groups is something that Umno leaders cannot match – unless they dump their divisive brand of racial politics.

Here’s an article I wrote in Perak this morning for Asia Times, just before returning to Penang: Malaysia’s Najib fails his first test By Anil Netto

BUKIT GANTANG, Perak – Malaysia’s ruling coalition lost two of three by-elections held on Tuesday, in a result that shows that the change in prime minister from Abdullah Badawi to Najib Razak only four days prior has done little to stem the erosion in popular support for government led by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO).