Chandra Muzaffar

There are very few people who believe that Barisan Alternatif (BA) won the Lunas state by-election because it "exploited religious and ethnic issues" or because it "employed gangster tactics". 

Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders who resort to such baseless allegations to explain their ignominious defeat are just bad losers who cannot accept the truth that stares them in the face.

The critical factor that tilted the balance in favour of BA - as has been noted a number of times now - was the feeling of hurt and anger within the Chinese electorate in Lunas. It was hurt and anger caused by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's totally insensitive remarks about sections of the Chinese community made on no less than three occasions in the last four months.

In his Merdeka Day speech he compared the Suqiu - the umbrella Chinese civic movement that had submitted a 17-point memorandum to both government and opposition parties in the November 1999 general elections on challenges facing the Chinese community and the nation - to the communists. 

Since the communists were part of an underground, illegal movement which sought to bring about political change through violence, the Suqiu and the Chinese community were understandably upset by the comparison. 

Suqiu perceived itself, and was perceived by the community, as a democratic network operating within civil society. Besides, most of the 17 points in its memorandum dealt with issues that are vital to the nation at this juncture in history - issues such as human rights, the independence of the judiciary, free and fair elections, the equitable distribution of wealth, the elimination of corruption and so on. 

This is why, reservations about a couple of concerns related to the status of the Bumiputra and the ethnic quota system in education aside, even Malay-based opposition parties such as the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS), Parti Keadilan Nasional (Keadilan) and Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) had no qualms about endorsing the Suqiu memorandum because it had such a strong commitment to social justice and democracy. 

Chinese upset

It is not surprising therefore that Mahathir's callous comment on Aug 31 evoked so much anger within the Chinese community - anger which expressed itself through the ballot-box in Lunas on Nov 29.

What exacerbated bad feelings within the community was yet another reckless remark that he made in early November. Criticising the Chinese education movement, the Dong Jiao Zong for opposing the Vision School (Sekolah Wawasan) concept, he averred that the movement wanted an education system "like in China". This upset a lot of Chinese. 

Chinese primary schools - which are supposed to be linked to Malay and Tamil primary schools through the Vision School idea - are integral to the national education system. Bahasa Melayu is an important compulsory subject in these schools. 

Chinese schools share a common curriculum and a common syllabus with their Malay and Tamil counterparts. There are some 65,000 non-Chinese pupils - about 15 percent of total enrolment - in Chinese primary schools throughout the country. 

If the aim of Vision School is to facilitate interaction amongst primary school pupils from different language streams, the Chinese education movement had already expressed its total support for a 1986 Education Ministry proposal to integrate primary school pupils through joint extra-curricular activities. 

What the Dong Jiao Zong and the Chinese community feared was that the Vision School concept with its emphasis upon establishing a common administrative structure would erode the identity of the Chinese primary school. 

Hobnobbing with opposition

Instead of addressing these fears sympathetically, Mahathir had chosen to castigate the Chinese education movement.

Mahathir committed a third gaffe. Right in the midst of the Lunas by-election campaign, he chose to admonish Chinese supporting the opposition as "ingrates". He had helped them during the financial crisis of 1997-98, he opined, and yet they were now hobnobbing with the opposition. 

For many Chinese and other Malaysians, if Mahathir adopted certain measures to overcome the crisis, it was his responsibility as prime minister to do so. There is no denying that the majority of
Chinese business people survived the crisis through their own efforts. 

It is true that Mahathir had saved some of them from going bankrupt but these were mainly the big tycoons with close ties to the ruling elite. Why should Mahathir expect ordinary Chinese to be grateful to him, asked the Chinese voters of Lunas? 

Indeed, as Fadzil Noor, PAS president and Opposition Leader in Parliament, put it sarcastically at a number of election ceramah, "It is not the Chinese who should be grateful to Mahathir, it is Mahathir who should be grateful to the Chinese because it was their votes that helped him remain in power at a time when the Malays had deserted him in the 1999 general elections."

It is because the Chinese electorate of Lunas regarded the "ingrates" remark as an affront to their dignity, just as they perceived Mahathir's comments about Suqiu and their opposition to Vision School as "hurtful" and "insulting", that an estimated 60 percent of them supported the Barisan Alternatif. 

Analysts are of the view that this represents a 15 to 20 percent increase in the Chinese vote for BA compared with the last general elections. However, the Chinese vote alone could not have won the day for the BA.

Malay unhappiness

The Lunas contest is a clear indication that two years after the harsh, punitive sacking of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim from the government and Umno, Malay unhappiness and anger with Mahathir has not subsided. 

If anything, a lot of Malays have become even more incensed with the man, following Anwar's nine-year conviction by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on sodomy charges on Aug 8 this year. 

The severity of the Mahathir regime's persecution of Anwar was underscored yet again on Nov 5 when a number of his supporters in the reformasi movement were bludgeoned and brutalised by the police as they tried to organise a peaceful assembly called the 100,000 People's Gathering. 

The grave injustice done to Anwar continues to rankle the Malay heart. In Lunas, as in the Teluk Kemang and Sanggang by-elections, the anger and indignation of the community found a channel through the vote.

There was another new issue which also stirred the conscience of the Malay community in Lunas. In September, the Mahathir government decided that it would no longer honour a 25-year-old petroleum agreement between the national oil company, Petronas, and the Terengganu state
government which gave Terengganu an annual royalty on oil drilled off the Terengganu coast. 

The only reason for the decision was the change of government in Kuala Terengganu, following the general elections. Since PAS was now in power, Mahathir decided that the state would not be entitled to any royalty. 

This vicious, vindictive attitude so characteristic of the man was condemned by speaker after speaker in all the BA ceramah in Lunas. For the voters, the royalty issue demonstrated yet again how haughty and arrogant the Mahathir regime had become.

Abysmal level

The various instances of abuse of power by the Mahathir regime coupled with its reluctance to tackle elite corruption, reflected in a number of well-documented cases, convinced the Malays of Lunas that the regime had no moral credibility. 

As BA campaigners conveyed this message to them, the Malays began to see why the leading institutions of governance, from the judiciary and the police to the Elections Commission and the Anti-Corruption Agency, no longer command public respect. 

It was not just the standards of governance which had deteriorated to an abysmal level. The economy, the people were made aware, was dominated by powerful corporate interests which were antithetical to the well-being of the poor. 

It was partly because of their awareness of these and other issues that about 55 percent of the Malay vote in Lunas went to the BA. 

Part II will appear tomorrow