Malays Too Support DAP

KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 (Bernama) -- MCA's Wanita chief Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen says that Umno must wake up to the reality that Malays have started to support the DAP, the party once shunned by them, as proven by the just concluded general election.

She said that the Malays, despite having benefited from the Barisan Nasional (BN) government's New Economic Policy (NEP), had thrown their support to the Opposition, including DAP in the March 8 election as could be seen in the many seats won by opposition parties.

As such, she said the NEP itself may not be a factor in ensuring Malay support for BN in the future because the Malay community also took into consideration issues like good governance, accountability and transparency in making decisions during the election.

Dr Ng said perhaps the time may have come for a new model for the NEP to be formulated to benefit all races.

"The world has changed... politically people don't want to wait too long for change," she said in an election forum held at Menara Star here today.

Dr Ng said politicians in the country must speak up for all Malaysians and in the interest of all of them and not just one community.

Social Strategic Foundation (YSS) executive director Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria said many analysts had distorted the fact by saying that the Opposition's success in the election was due to Chinese and Indian votes, but the fact was this success was not possible without the sizeable swing from Malay voters as well.

Dr Denison also touched on the NEP and claimed that sizeable sections of the Malay community had not benefited from the NEP.

He said many people had under-estimated Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, pointing out that the former deputy prime minister was able to capture the imagination of sizeable numbers of people during the election.

Dr Denison also stressed that the Opposition's remarkable success this time would not have been possible if not for the democratic space given by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in the past four years of his administration.

He felt that there was a need for a return of local government elections so that the people could chose representatives who could truly serve them.

He said the election showed that race-based politics had changed radically and the BN could not continue in its old form.

He said for the first time there was sizeable numbers of people from the civil society elected to Parliament and state assemblies, saying that this was an interesting development.

On Malaysian Indians, he said they had voted for a strong voice in Parliament rather than strong representatives in the government, something that was proven with 11 of their community coming from the Opposition.

According to Dr Denison, reforms could not take place in MIC without the overall reform in the ruling BN.

Seputeh MP Teresa Kok said the election results showed that the people's dissatisfaction with the government had cut across racial lines, adding that many Malay voters had supported the Opposition following issues related to the higher cost of living and inflation.

The Malays too were sick of corruption and cronyism while the non-Malays were unhappy with issues related to race and religion, she said.

She said since the Opposition was now in control of five states -- Selangor, Perak, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan, it was time for the BN and the Opposition to talk on how to create a better Malaysia for all Malaysians.

She said the Opposition, being in a position to run five state governments, were also worried that the mainstream media would blow up small issues in an unjust manner to make the Opposition look bad.

Kok, who is also the state assemblyperson for Kinrara, said that among the challenges for the Opposition in the five states, were to get the cooperation of civil servants, attracting investors and improving efficiency at the local government level.

The MP for Johor Baharu, Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad, said that he did not think Anwar would become Prime Minister one day.

"I dont' think so... I am not convinced," said the outspoken politician.

Shahrir said it was clear that issues related to quality of life such as crime rate and accountability had played important role in the election.

The founding director of the Institute of Ethnic Studies, UKM, Profesor Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharudin, said that whether Anwar would become prime minister or not depended on what happened in BN and Umno.

"In politics nothing is impossible...only if he can create BA (Barisan Alternatif) and win in the next election," said the academician.

Shamsul said the people had voted across ethnic lines, adding that it would be interesting to watch how the Opposition would behave inside and outside of the state assemblies they controlled.



-- BERNAMA