Something I wrote on the Hulu Selangor by-election for IPS.
Tougher Days Ahead for Ruling Coalition, Opposition
Analysis by Anil Netto
A closely contested by-election over the weekend, which saw victory for the ruling coalition, shows that the political terrain in multi-ethnic Malaysia remains divided and raises searching questions for the opposing sides.
The by-election for a seat in the Federal Parliament took place in an ethnically mixed area – Hulu Selangor, a district in central Selangor state that is fairly similar in composition to the overall population of the Malaysian peninsula.
Selangor is considered the richest state in this South-east Asian country, where 60 percent of the 28 million population consists of Muslims. Full story here.
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A very healthy scenario for all Malaysians. It’s a strong PR and a strong BN. Let the people choose the BEST. Deliver, or we will throw you out! No ‘post’ is for keep in politics. Stop corruption, cronyism, wastage of taxpayers’ money, mediocrity, cheating and the abuse of power. The people are the eyes and ears. Soon even the rural folk will know what’s happening to the country. They cannot be bought anymore with cash and kind. The educated are already aware of the dilemma we are facing.The future of our children and grandchildren cannot be abused by some selfish… Read more »
Sewel packing his bag and heading off to Sibu.
I am confident that as long as there is blatant sponsored discrimination against the non-Malay Malaysian citizens who make up over 30% of the population, rabid corruption in the current Government in Malaysia, a (corruption-prone) and trigger-happy police plus a justice system controlled by the executive of the country then i am confident Pakatan Rakyat will always get strong votes.
Can I also thank Perkasa, Dr. Mahatir and et al. in their recent statements that will help DAP in getting strong votes.
Dear Iron 5:56 pm Yes, you are right. Tough days are ahead for the ordinary rakyat. Worsening performance of the Malaysian economy. High rate of inflation for one thing — buy-elections and cross-overs from PR to BN getting more and more expensive, so the regime has to throw money around more and more. Cutbacks in expenditure on public services — otherwise, how to get extra money for the buy-elections and cross-overs? Worsening ICOR (incremental capital-output ratio)– more and more spending on megaprojects with decreasing returns because of “leakages” etc Petronas forced to cough up more money for the ruling regime?… Read more »
Anil I like and respect you as you are one of the endangered species of the Malaysian political ecosystem – nuetral commentator. However, sometimes you have the tendency to veer off from your balanced perspective, not due to bias but perhaps a momentary lapse of perspective.This is such instance. I don’t disagree with your analysis regarding the polarised voting pattern. However, if Pakatan had won HS, noone would be talking about such issues but would be busy preparing obituiry for BN and declaring how Najib’s reforms have been rejected by rakyat. How come such analysis was not done before when… Read more »
Najib is playing divide & rule. For this race/community, he’ll say 1Malaysia. For another race/community, he’ll say defend ketuanan. Then his minions will say something even more right wing. Lets not even get into what his deputy says & do. It’s directly opposite of the boss. Then you have PERKASA, the unofficial militant right wing ketuanan upholder. Though not officially link to ruling party, it has the unofficial blessing for upholding the ketuanan principle. As usual, the civil service will do what it pleases. Each little Napoleon will carry out the ketuanan agenda to the hilt. We are at their… Read more »
It looks like there is not going to be free lunches for BN ever. They are seriously threatened with the results of the Hulu Selangor byelection. They wanted to thrash Zaid and DSAI real bad! They were hoping for a repeat of the majority that they secured before the debacle of March 2008, that was a 14,000+ majority. Despite all the goodies and election promises, they were able to only retain the seat by a slim majority of 1,725 votes. This is a good sign for democracy as it will put both the BN and Pakatan on the alert always… Read more »
O,
let’s look at Zaid. He belongs to upper class (with arrogant look) and to let him contest in semi-rural area was big mistake.
On the other hand, please look at Kamal. A humble, soft spoken and nice person. Just like my good neighbours.
As if your masters from UMNO does not have the arrogant look.
The most… is Nazri. Even your PM has a look that’s not so approachable…). Your PM grew up a rich man (yau chin chai). Zaid is a self made man. There is a vast diff between the two.
Wake up brother ! Both benefited from NEP.
You know, Anil, sometimes when I reflect back on the issue of Racial Discrimination I can’t help but to remember my dear friend, the late M.G.G. Pillai. Read this article he wrote, Anil: http://web.archive.org/web/20040630090607/http://www.mggpillai.com/article.php3?sid=1360 Yes, he was talking about Badawi, the guy who supposingly is the “more moderate” type. And in the same vein, read this letter from a girl originating from Penang — http://web.archive.org/web/20070811163403/http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/28053 Her experience isn’t that different from mine – and many other non-Malays who study abroad. While she worked as a Janitor, I worked as a construction worker building sky-scrappers…. The HS election had me thinking… Read more »
Aiya, Anil !
Real tougher days ahead are reserved for the Rakyat la !
Them YB in BN and PR are all with big pockets, big house, big cars, can even go shopping in Paris.
No tough days for them la.
For the Rakyat, days are getting tougher and tougher.
Beside using money, Najib is using every devious scheme … available to uproot Anwar and PKR. Before the buy election, there were a lot of cross over from PKR. Why is it that there are no more such crossover now. It shows that these despicable frogs are being brought to destablise PKR and PR during buy election time. We should not worry about HS. PR will have their chance next GE and one state seat could be won. Previously BN in HS always won by more than 14,000 votes majority and now its only 1724 despites all the money being… Read more »
Hulu Selangor, a district in central Selangor state that is fairly similar in composition to the overall population of the Malaysian peninsula.
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This statement is not true. In Hulu Selangor, there is 20% Indian compared to 10% at the national level.
In precise speaking, in national level Indian is around 10% while in Peninsular Indian is around 15%.
Bro…the Indian population nationally is only 7 to 8%. Where did you get your data from ? Hopefully not Mkini or MInsider…LOL
That is my rough estimate based on Year 2000 censure data.
I don’t know if I can agree with the summary. Prior to this, PR actually had the momentum short term, medium term, long term. It does not anymore. Whatever you may want to say about Najib and BN, he stopped PR in its tracks in the short-term at the expense of long-term interest. However, as the say, in the long-run, we are all dead. For sure, nothing is certain, Najib short-term gain could very well evaporate very quickly if something goes horribly wrong for example the economy tanked or a scandal. Without a major incident, Najib and BN has time… Read more »