MIC man: PPBM poses danger to Perak BN

R Ganesan.

KUALA LUMPUR: An MIC leader has warned Barisan Nasional of the possibility that PPBM will be popular enough in Perak to cause a Malay tsunami in favour of Pakatan Harapan in the coming general election.

“I am not being negative,” said former Perak MIC chief and former state assembly speaker R Ganesan. “But it looks like in 2018 there could be a Malay tsunami, now that the opposition has PPBM with it.

“I’m being realistic.

“PPBM leaders were always with us and suddenly now they are part of the opposition. So we do not know their strength and the support that they command.”

Ganesan, who is the current MIC Ipoh Timur chief, said the biggest question to consider was how the Malay votes would be split.

“You have Umno, PAS, PKR, Amanah and the PPBM competing for the Malay votes,” he said, noting that PPBM could draw a lot of those votes from Umno because it is led by former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.

However, he said BN could draw comfort from the exclusion of PAS from the opposition alliance.

“Three-cornered fights should benefit us because PAS will take away some of the opposition support from them,” he told FMT.

He noted that PAS won only a few state seats in the last election and the majorities were small.

“PAS does not do well alone,” he said, pointing to its performance in the Kuala Kangsar by-election about 18 months ago. In that multi-cornered fight, he said, Amanah and PAS were competing for the same block of votes and the split benefited BN.

“We may see the same scenario again,” he said. “The main question is how many votes PPBM can take away from Umno.”

In 2008, Perak, along with Kedah, Penang, Kelantan and Selangor, fell to the opposition and some observers have, in retrospect, attributed BN’s loss to the so-called Indian tsunami.

But BN retook Perak in February 2009, after Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang) left DAP and Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang) and Mohd Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) left PKR. They became independent assemblymen friendly to BN.

In 2013, BN won Perak but lost in terms of popular votes, thanks to an impressive performance by DAP.

Prime Minister Najib Razak himself described the voting pattern in 2013 as a Chinese tsunami.

Ganesan claimed that Indian support had returned to BN, but said it was difficult to predict what would happen in the next few months.

He said Hindraf, the Hindu rights advocacy group that many credit for the Indian tsunami in 2008, had always been present in Perak.

He noted that Hindraf had an accord with Najib before the 2013 election and said that was why Indians shifted their support to BN.

“But now,” he added, “Hindraf is back with the opposition again and, even as we speak, its activists are on the ground to win back the Indian votes.

“MIC has to look at that fact seriously and come up with a plan to counter the work done by Hindraf. Najib has done a lot for the Indians already, and this should be explained to the people in Perak.”

Ganesan acknowledged DAP’s strength in Perak and said it would work hard to retain its seats by “playing the Chinese sentiment”.

He also predicted that the opposition would try to smear Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir’s image. “That is their job, but there is nothing major they can attack him with. He has been relatively clean and is loved by the people.” -FMT