Many Pakatan Harapan hardcore supporters do not like it when Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is being criticized. They had no idea the danger of blindly supporting a man who walks the corridors of power. All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is not to say Anwar had stolen money, but power has corrupted this man to the extent that he becomes arrogant.
Yes, the man who had been screaming “Reformasi” (reforms) for 20 years now has little appetite for reforms after he becomes the most powerful man in the country. Terrified of losing power, he now argues that we should not rush for reforms. Reforms take time, and people must be ready to accept reforms, he argues, thinking that people are stupid and could be taken for a ride.
Even if the spineless prime minister was right that reforms take time, which is not because the country is in dire straits after more than 60 years of corruption and mismanagement by the previous Barisan Nasional government, which he was part of for 16 years (1982-1998), he can’t explain why his government continues to discriminate, bully and ignore Chinese and Indian, the minorities who put him in power.
On June 29, about a week before the Sungai Bakap polling day (July 6), we published an article screaming (read here) – Sungai Bakap Polls – PKR Set To Lose Again As Chinese Voters Find Little Inspiration To Vote For Anwar’s Party – and voila, not only the premier’s party lost, it had lost with a bigger majority (4,267 votes) than during the 2023 Penang state election (1,563 votes).
To say Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) or People’s Justice Party was humiliated is an understatement. It has been trashed, crushed and abandoned by extremely angry Chinese voters, so much so that a few thousands Chinese attending a banquet hundreds of kilometres away in Selayang, Selangor, burst into celebration as if Malaysia had won the FIFA World Cup when Sungai Bakap poll results were announced.
Exactly how could PKR, supposedly the backbone of Pakatan Harapan coalition, lost nearly 3 times more majority-vote in less than a year? Even opposition Perikatan Nasional was surprised by its stunning victory. It was an absolutely disastrous for the prime minister’s party to lose by 4,267-majority votes – more than 10% of the total registered electorate of 39,279 voters.
Worse, Sungai Bakap is also the “birthplace” of the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia. Not only Mr Anwar has an egg on his face, thanks to fellow ethnic Malays who rejected him, he was also given a slap in the face by both Chinese and Indian communities who boycotted him. Make no mistake – Perikatan Nasional did not win because the voters loved it, but because the voters despised Pakatan Harapan more.
At the Saturday’s polls, a whopping 70% of the 22,815 Malay voters cast their ballots for Perikatan Nasional, whilst only 47% Chinese and 58% Indian voters care to vote. PKR was already handicapped with the constituency’s electorate landscape – 59.36% Malays, 22.54% Chinese and 17.39% Indian. With only less than half of Chinese votes in the bag, it was already “game over” for PKR.
As analysed, the prime minister knew he would lose, but did not expect to suffer such a huge defeat. That was why he offered a hilarious excuse not to campaign for his own party. From the beginning, bread-and-butter issues like diesel subsidies, electricity and water rates and the soaring cost of living were the three hot potatoes among the voters in Sungai Bakap, a semi-rural constituency on mainland Penang.
Perikatan Nasional did not need to try very hard to convince voters who to vote – silly Anwar had been bragging that the reforms to diesel subsidies could save the government RM4 billion every year. Yet, the government could only reduce “3 sen” in egg prices – costing the government merely RM100 million – as part of its promise to return to the people the RM4 billion savings from the diesel subsidy cuts.
The diesel subsidies cut saw the floated retail prices shot to RM3.35 per litre, an increase of about 55% from RM2.15. Even though the government said it will dish out monthly cash of RM200 to eligible owners of diesel vehicles, the handouts are insufficient for residents like Malay fishmonger, grocery store owner, motorcycle repair shop and tonnes of Chinese businesses.
Besides the unpopular diesel subsidies cut, people were also disgusted with the federal government’s decision to raise SST (sales and service tax) on electricity from 6% to 8%, as well as the Penang state government’s hiking of water tariff by up to 204%. But the arrogant Anwar government was not done insulting the people even after adding fuel to the fire of escalating cost of living.
PKR’s most brilliant strategist and tactician – Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli – happily and arrogantly warned that the government has “another surprise for everyone”. He was referring to the removal of RON95 petrol subsidies, which will be announced in the same manner as diesel. He probably thought he was funny and smart, and everyone would applause at another subsidies cut.
Sure, go ahead and abolish the petrol subsidies tomorrow and see the spectacular fireworks of PKR destruction. If even the best brains in the United States and Western nations could not manage the cost of living and tame their respective country’s inflation, who is Rafizi to claim he has the formula to do so? Which part of “timing is not right for subsidies cut” that both Anwar and Rafizi don’t understand?
Yes, not only the Chinese community was angry, pro-Anwar Malays had also decided to either skip voting or swing their votes for the opposition – just to teach the out-of-touch Anwar government a lesson. Fed up with skyrocketing prices, a survey showed that 7 out of 20 residents of Sungai Bakap who had previously voted for Pakatan Harapan have decided not to vote at all this time.
After PKR was demolished beyond recognition in the Sungai Bakap by-election, Mr Rafizi conveniently blames the Chinese low turnout for his party’s defeat. The PKR deputy-president who was responsible for blindly pushing for subsidy cuts and tax hikes has forgotten that he was the same data genius who said only 48% Malays would support rival Perikatan Nasional in Sungai Bakap.
While Anwar Ibrahim’s daughter – Nurul Izzah – the “Reformation Princess” who stunningly lost her family traditional stronghold in Permatang Pauh in the Nov 2022 General Election quickly took full responsibility for PKR’s defeat, she may want to advise his daddy to prioritize the Chinese and Indian community instead of Malays, let alone Palestinian or Hamas.
Instead of fixing domestic issues like sagging economy, rising costs of living, un-affordable housing and depreciating local currency, Hamas-obsessed Anwar easily gave away RM100 million to the Palestinian. Vernacular schools, like a beggar, meanwhile, received only a few hundreds of thousands here and there for each of the Chinese and Tamil schools.
To charm and hoodwink Malays that he is the world’s best Muslim hero, Anwar had even dragged schools nationwide into the Middle East conflict, introducing a so-called “Palestine Solidarity Week” program under the pretext of teaching students about humanitarian values. The reckless move saw innocent students carrying firearms, albeit toy guns, while wrapping Palestinian keffiyeh scarf around their heads like militants.
As if that was not bad enough, Anwar’s Madanistan government created a new problem in education, one of two most important things in the Chinese culture after economy. Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek, arguably Anwar’s most useless minister, issued a new directive to secondary schools in Penang to have at least one class teaches two subjects – science and mathematics – in Malay.
The controversy in Penang – Malaysia’s “Silicon Valley” where English is the main language for business and technology – was to woo Malay voters, who mostly back the Malay-Muslim-based opposition alliance Perikatan Nasional. But it was a dumb move as it contradicts with Anwar, who himself flip-flops about the importance of Malay and English languages and whined about a shortage of 30,000 engineers.
Even during the previous racist and extremist backdoor government of Muhyiddin, parents wishing for science and mathematics to be taught in English were allowed to do so without any conditions requiring at least one class to be taught in Malay. So, if Muhyiddin regime was bad, Anwar’s is worse as the Chinese could see how the chameleon tries to be more Malay and Muslim than opposition just to cling to power.
Spending more time in the internal affairs of Palestinian and Hamas than his own backyard is one thing. Keeping quiet while Chinese-owned businesses were being terrorized by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) racist and gangster like UMNO Youth leader Akmal Salleh is another thing altogether. So, where was Rafizi, Anwar, Nurul or other PKR leaders when the Chinese were being bullied?
Hilariously, despite wasting tens of billions to appease the Malay-Muslims, including giving RM2 billion to the Islamic Development Department Malaysia (JAKIM), who was involved in “meat scandal” and promoting “radical ideologies”, and allocated RM10 billion annually for a salary hike to civil servants, the Malay voters took the money but showed Anwar Ibrahim the “middle finger”.
Instead of blaming the Penang Chinese voters for refusing to vote, PKR leadership should have the balls to blame governing partner UMNO. Where have all the 8,000 UMNO voters who had voted for the party in the 2018 General Election disappeared? The Malay nationalist party should take responsibility for failing to deliver the Malay votes to PKR-Pakatan Harapan.
As far as Chinese electorate is concerned, the predominantly pro-Perikatan Nasional Malay voter base in Sungai Bakap was already a lost cause. Even if 100% of the Chinese voters turns up in full force to vote for PKR, they can’t re-capture the seat. It would be a waste of time, not to mention the Chinese voters find more reasons to punish Anwar than to vote for him, thus resulting in lower turnout.
Crucially, unlike Kuala Kubu Baharu where Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP) was the incumbent, the Chinese can afford to punish Anwar in Sungai Bakap because there is nothing to lose even if Pakatan Harapan candidate fails to win. It will not change the government. But the people can celebrate when Anwar’s party loses, which they did. So, why bother to vote at all?
More importantly, if the Chinese had voted for PKR, it would embolden the arrogant and out-of-touch Anwar to continue ignore the minorities, as well as to cut more subsidies, increase more taxes and interfere in the interest of the Chinese community. If Anwar still has no idea that the Chinese are his major vote bank, he deserves to be kicked out and PKR deserves to be wiped out in the next election.
Get real, the minorities, especially ethnic Chinese, are not stupid, let alone blind. The mantra – “If you don’t vote for PKR-Pakatan Harapan, the extremist PAS Islamist party will rule the country” – can only work for so long. Do you really think the Chinese will bend over and held for ransom for 5 years, giving a blank cheque to a prime minister who has so far done nothing for the community?
For the last 60 years, it has always been greedy Malays fighting each other for power. Chinese can’t be the prime minister, can they? So, it doesn’t really matter which Malay becomes the prime minister. They are all the same. And if majority of Malays wish to destroy their own land with a Taliban government, let them be. They deserve the government they voted for.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
- Focus Malaysia
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