Don’t overinterpret KKB by-election results, says ex-DAP MP

 

Former Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming reminds his Pakatan Harapan colleagues that dissatisfaction with the government is ‘real and growing’ despite the coalition’s recent victory in Kuala Kubu Baharu.

PETALING JAYA: A former DAP MP has cautioned against interpreting the results of the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election, won by DAP’s Pang Sock Tao, as a “vote of confidence” for Pakatan Harapan (PH) and the unity government.

In a statement, former Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming said this would be a mistake as dissatisfaction with the government was “real and growing” among various segments of society.

“Many of my colleagues in PH would remember the April 2007 Ijok by-election that was won relatively comfortably by the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate,” he said.

“Less than one year later, in March 2008, in the 13th general election, BN lost control of Selangor and of the two-thirds majority in Parliament.”

Nevertheless, Ong also acknowledged that PH had seen improvements in support among the police, army, civil servants, Orang Asli and Indian voters, compared to the 2023 state election.

“PH won more than 95% of the Chinese vote, more than 70% of the Indian and Orang Asli vote, and more than 60% of the early and postal voters,” he said.

Pang won last Saturday’s by-election with a majority of 3,869 votes. She polled a total of 14,000, defeating Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Khairul Azhari Saut (10,131), Parti Rakyat Malaysia’s Hafizah Zainuddin (152) and independent candidate Nyau Ke Xin (188).

The final turnout of voters was 61.5%, lower than the 69.25% recorded in Kuala Kubu Baharu for the state polls last August.

Umno secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said after the by-election that PH had captured six of the eight Malay-majority electoral districts in Kuala Kubu Baharu won by PN in last year’s state election.

He said this proved that Malay voters had changed their attitude and now understood that the unity government formed under the decree of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong did not sideline Islam or Malay-Bumiputeras.

In his statement, however, Ong cautioned Umno against believing that the Malay vote was turning in its favour.

He said the results in Malay-majority areas in Kuala Kubu Baharu indicated otherwise.

“The party still lacks a coherent game plan on how it will win back the Malay vote, especially among the Malay youth,” he said.

He also noted that PH had experienced some loss among Malay voters, saying the coalition lost ground in five Malay-majority polling stations where its vote share decreased by 1.3% from 40.0% in 2023 to 38.7% in 2024.

But despite PN’s success in winning over 80% of the Malay vote, Ong said the coalition should not assume that its current popularity would guarantee an easy victory in the next general election (GE16).

“While they definitely have the majority of Malay support nationally, it remains to be seen if this will be sufficient for them to win a majority of seats in the peninsula, especially if some of the leadership challenges in Bersatu continue to weaken the ability of the party to campaign and present itself as a credible government in waiting,” he said.

Ong said political parties and leaders in general still had “a lot of runway” to make the necessary adjustments to win over the Malay middle ground leading up to GE16.

“The battleground is among the middle ground, especially the Malay middle ground which can be swayed by good leadership, good policies, and good implementation,” he said. - FMT