BN goes into overdrive, painting DAP as both lord and serf

Hours after Pakatan Harapan unveiled the allocation of parliamentary seats to its component parties last Sunday in an attempt to project a clear direction and unity, BN immediately swung into action to counter the opposition coalition’s narrative.

Harapan's allocation had abided by a number of principles, including the need for Bersatu to be the dominant force in Peninsular Malaysia, and that its number of seats must exceed those allocated for DAP nationally.

The intent was to ride on Bersatu's Malay image, with Umno as the main target, and negate any perception that the opposition coalition could be anti-Malay – a propaganda that has been effectively deployed against DAP.

This resulted in an arrangement of 52 seats to Bersatu, 51 to PKR, 35 to DAP and 27 to Amanah.

If the status quo remains in East Malaysia, DAP would contest a total of 50 seats nationally, still less than Bersatu, which is unlikely to enter the fray across the South China Sea.

Naturally, BN's counter-narrative, or more specifically Umno’s, says the opposite is true.

Regardless of the math, or of Bersatu chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad being nominated as Harapan’s prime ministerial candidate, the "anti-Malay" DAP would still dominate the coalition.

Lawyer and activist Azhar Harun had even taken to Facebook to share his observation of how TV3 had spent some 20 minutes airing a myriad of talking heads deriding the seat allocation and Mahathir's nomination with an emphasis on DAP.

But BN, like Harapan, comprises component parties with different voter bases, often along racial lines.

And with MCA joining the fray, it has seemingly caused BN's counter-narrative to become muddled.

While Umno preached to Malay audiences that Harapan’s seat arithmetic was meaningless since DAP would still pull the strings, MCA touted the opposite to the Chinese Malaysian community.

In this narrative, the multiracial but Chinese-majority DAP was helpless in preventing Bersatu from taking the lion's share of seats, thus becoming subservient to the Malay party.

It was the same message that DAP had previously used effectively against MCA, claiming that it was subservient to Umno.

MCA was so gung-ho about turning the tables on the DAP that its vice-president Chew Mei Fun (photo) even exaggerated the math, mistaking the 165 peninsular seats for national seats.

"In the last general election (DAP) won 38 seats, now they have 36 left. Despite being the strongest party, it was only allocated 35 seats," she wrote in Mandarin on Facebook.

Racial doublespeak

Her posting sparked a war of words with DAP's Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, who ticked off Chew for trying to give the impression that DAP was allocated fewer seats than it won.

With 36 seats, DAP is the largest opposition party in Parliament, even though it lost Teluk Intan in a by-election and Kota Melaka after its MP Sim Tong Him resigned from the party.

DAP contested 52 seats nationally in the last general election and will contest in 51 seats if the status quo remains in East Malaysia.

This is not the first time BN has propagated a conflicting message about DAP in trying to capture the support of both Malays and non-Malays.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng had in November last year highlighted Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's speech imploring the Chinese community to back MCA, stressing that voting for DAP was pointless because it would never have the numbers to gain power.

Najib's speech at the MCA annual general assembly came despite Umno's persistent message that DAP would dominate the government if Harapan captured power.

While BN was delivering this conflicting narrative, Perkasa then joined the debate.

Ibrahim Ali, who heads the right-wing Malay rights group, declared that PKR was the biggest winner in the allocation of seats in the peninsula.

"For a new party to be allocated 52 seats, that's quite good. Unfortunately, when I look at Bersatu's seats, I find that these are 'Grade C' seats.

"It means that these are seats that they could contest but it won't easy because the incumbents are heavyweights in the BN leadership," Ibrahim said.- Mkini