Boycott Mahkota By-Election – 1 Vote For BN Is 1 Vote For UMNO Akmal, So Better Stays At Home And Rest

 Does anyone get a feeling the current Anwar administration, despite less than 2 years old, actually feels extremely familiar as if it has been six decades? Yes, it feels and smells like the previous ruling Barisan Nasional government is running the show even though the driver is Pakatan Harapan chairman Anwar Ibrahim, whose job security depends on UMNO (the most dominant party of Barisan Nasional).

 

That’s a polite way to describe Prime Minister Anwar as subservient – even a lame duck – to the United Malays National Organization (UMNO). Anwar’s own party, PKR (People’s Justice Party), won only 31 parliamentary seats in the November 2022 General Election. That’s roughly the same as Barisan Nasional’s 30 seats. If PKR and UMNO (26 MPs) merge, they will become the biggest party (57 MPs).

 

Regardless whether there is a secret preliminary study to merge both PKR and UMNO, or for Anwar to return to UMNO and lead the Malay nationalist party, the fact remains that PKR is a splinter party of UMNO and Anwar was the former UMNO deputy president before he was sacked in September 1998 by then-UMNO Supremo Mahathir Mohamad, effectively crushing Anwar’s ambition to become the 5th Prime Minister.

That’s why Anwar government looks like the previous Barisan Nasional government. The domestic policy is pro-Malay, anti-Chinese (till election time), enrich-cronies and whatnot, whilst pro-Palestine, anti-Jews dominate its foreign policy. Corruption is business as usual in the government filled with double-standard, hypocrisy – even increasingly dictatorship and censorship.

 

It definitely tastes like UMNO regime when the prime minister says one thing and does another thing altogether – punishing only non-Muslims who touch on 3R (race, religion and royalty) issues, terrorizing Chinese-owned businesses, laughing at Indian community for being jealous of pro-Malay discrimination programmes, and of course, interfering Chinese education, economy and religion.

 

Carrying the same UMNO DNA, the special chemistry between PKR and UMNO after the 2022 national polls that produced a hung parliament had allowed both PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and UMNO president Zahid Hamidi to strike a deal at lightning speed. The deal to form a Unity Government was just part of a bigger picture. The grand plan was to help UMNO regains the Malay support it had stunningly lost.

However, the more PKR helps UMNO to regain its traditional Malay voters, the more they have to bash Chinese-dominated party DAP (Democratic Action Party). For 60 years before the defeat of UMNO-led Barisan Nasional in 2022, the Chinese have been the punching bag for UMNO to sell the idea to the Malays that only UMNO-Malays can protect them.

 

That was why UMNO unleashed its Youth leader Akmal Salleh to attack the Chinese and DAP and whatever between them to impress the Malays, whilst UMNO and PKR leaders keep quiet and watch with popcorn. It also explains why PM Anwar, instead of reprimanding the UMNO chief troublemaker, has attacked DAP vice chairman Teresa Kok in the latest Jakim halal certification crisis.

 

It was exactly how UMNO-Malays used to attack MCA-Chinese till the latter becomes a pathetic eunuch whenever UMNO felt weak and needed to flex its muscles in front of the Malays. MCA would bend over and let its big brother screwed it, before giving the thumbs-up, and repeat the disgusting drama until it didn’t work anymore as the Chinese community flocked to DAP.

Fresh from the August 2024 Nenggiri by-election, UMNO believes (or rather fantasizes) that the Malay support has returned. It captured 61% of the Malay votes, giving a bloody nose to Islamist party PAS (who lends its candidate to partner Bersatu). UMNO leadership burst into wild celebration over the so-called “extraordinary victory”, although the real hero was an ATM machine.

 

If Nenggiri was a hard fought battle, the upcoming Mahkota by-election would be a walk in the park for the Malay nationalist party. Even before a candidate could be identified and announced, UMNO has already started counting chickens before they hatch. Barisan Nasional was so confident of not only retaining the state seat, but will do so with a bigger majority of at least 10,000 votes.

 

Here’s how they count the chickens. In the last state election in March 2022, Barisan’s candidate Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain (16,611 votes) won the seat with a 5,166-vote majority against candidates from Pakatan Harapan (11,445 votes), Perikatan Nasional (7,614 votes) and Warisan (555 votes). But Barisan managed to snatch the seat due to low turnout (57% compared to 2018 state election’s 84%).

Because now Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan are allies in the Unity Government, it’s assumed that the friendly’s 11,445 votes will be automatically transferred to UMNO, which will theoretically boost Barisan’s majority by more than 15,000-vote based on the same low turnout of 57%. If the turnout somehow shoots up to 84%, the majority could skyrocket by nearly 20,000-vote (votes which Pakatan captured in 2018).

 

No matter how, it’s a sure win for UMNO. On paper, it does not need any Chinese votes at all. Based on the 2022 state election results, Barisan alone can retain the Mahkota seat with nearly 10,000-vote majority – even if all the Pakatan Harapan supporters stay at home and play mahjong or watch Netflix. Therefore, the 34% Chinese and 7% Indian voters in Mahkota can “safely boycott” the by-election this round.

 

Mahkota presents an opportunity to non-Malays not to go to the polling centres without feeling guilty because their vote does not matter anyway. Even in the worst case scenario that UMNO loses the seat, which is absolutely impossible based on Akmal’s scientific calculation, the status quo will remain as UMNO won the Johor state election on March 12, 2022 with a super-majority.

A boycott, however, can send a lovely message to UMNO top leadership, and PM Anwar for that matter, that the ethnic Chinese are extremely upset with the government policies of bullying and discriminating against the minority race. Abstaining from voting will not bring any benefit nor change anything. So, why waste precious time and energy to vote if it won’t change anything?

 

However, if the Chinese ignorantly vote for UMNO, it will send the wrong message that they are happy and thrilled to be screwed by the corrupt, arrogant, extremist and racist UMNO even after more than 66 years of screwing. Worse, pariah UMNO Youth Chief Akmal will be emboldened to continue mocking, insulting, belittling and terrorizing the Chinese community.

 

Another reason to boycott the Mahkota election is to deny MCA the chance to claim credit, after the Malaysian Chinese Association excitedly announced it will mobilise all its 4,000 members and machinery to ensure a landslide victory. Of course, the Chinese traitor MCA knew it would be a sure win contest, thus wanted to secure the bragging right that Chinese too have returned to MCA.

More importantly, boycotting Mahkota will teach spineless and forked tongue Anwar a lesson not to take Chinese votes for granted. When push comes to shove, the Chinese can dump him like soiled diapers the same way Malay voters abandoned Mahathir in Langkawi in the 2022 polls. Without DAP or the Chinese, the prime minister is game over because he can’t win in a Malay-majority seat.

 

Heck, if the Chinese are angry enough, they would and should vote for opposition Perikatan Nasional just to satisfy their desire for revenge against racist Akmal and create confusion to the entire political calculations. At least, extremist PAS and racist Bersatu do no hide their racial and religious bigotry. UMNO, on the other hand, pretends to be friendly with Chinese but hides a knife and repeatedly backstabbing its own friends.

 

Make no mistake – DAP captured 98% of Chinese support and won 40 seats in 2022 because it was the kingmaker Chinese voters who allowed DAP to represent them for a 5-year term. But that does not mean the community cannot and would not cast a protest vote during this period against DAP if the party betrays the ethnic Chinese the same way MCA did.

In fact, by boycotting the Mahkota polls on September 28, the Chinese are actually helping DAP to justify to both PKR and UMNO why they should not ignore, let alone attack the non-Malay voters. The Chinese must make a statement that they are NOT blind supporters of Anwar. Remember – a vote for Barisan Nasional is a vote for Akmal.  - financetwitter

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.