DAP says data proves Malay shift to Pakatan, rebuts ‘Chinese tsunami’ claim

By Ida Lim

KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 — The DAP today insisted that last Sunday’s polls result was not a “Chinese tsunami”, saying that electoral statistics showed a shift among the Malay and Bumiputera communities towards the federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

“I want to show through these statistics that, yes, Chinese support has increased for Pakatan, but there are many other places where non-Chinese support for Pakatan has also increased,” DAP election strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming told reporters when presenting a series of statistics at the party’s headquarters.

Ong (picture) said support for PR had increased in states where the Malay community makes up over 70 per cent of the voters — namely Perlis, Pahang and Terengganu — by 4.4 points, 3.8 points and 3.7 points respectively.

In 23 Malay-majority parliamentary seats nationwide where the community contributes over 50 per cent of registered voters, the opposition pact similarly made gains of over five percentage points.

“These 23 seats show that it’s impossible for Pakatan not to increase its share of Malay voters because these seats are Malay-majority seats,” said Ong, who had also previously carried out a study on the electoral roll before Election 2013.

These 23 seats are mostly semi-urban or rural seats, with Johor Baru, Setiawangsa and Putrajaya being urban seats, Ong said.

In his analysis, Ong also touched on 15 parliamentary seats in Sabah and Sarawak which had a substantial number of Bumiputera voters, saying there was a drop of more than 10 per cent in support for rival coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) in these seats.

The eight federal seats in Sarawak listed by Ong, which include Saratok and Baram, are either Dayak-majority seats or mixed seats where the indigenous community takes up a significant percentage of the voters there.

Out of the seven Bumiputera-majority parliamentary seats in Sabah where BN support fell, PR only won the Penampang seat, a fact that Ong attributes to the multiple-cornered fights with other Sabah-based opposition parties.

“In Sabah and Sarawak, it’s not just a rural swing against BN, but also an urban swing in some areas,” he said.

“There is no state which BN can consider to be a fixed deposit anymore,” the DAP leader said, having referred to PR’s gains and BN’s declining support in Johor, Sabah and Sarawak.

These three states are said to be BN strongholds, with the two east Malaysian states being the coalition’s saving grace in Election 2008.

Ong also said BN was now put on the defensive despite winning the majority of the parliamentary seats with its tally of 133 out of the 222 federal seats.

The academic explained that this was due to BN now having to defend more marginal seats than PR, with the ruling coalition winning 46 marginal seats against the latter’s slim win in 30 seats.

BN had held on to power despite losing the popular vote this Sunday, where it took home 47.4 per cent of votes while PR took 50.9 per cent, the first time since the 1969 elections when the former had contested as the Alliance Party.

BN ceded an additional seven federal seats to PR in the 13th general election, which won 89 seats.

PR also won 230 state seats, a 32-seat improvement from 2008, while BN won 275 seats out of the total 505 state seats contested.

Sarawak already had its state elections in 2011, where BN retained the country’s largest state.

Analysts and opposition leaders have attributed BN’s poorer showing to a swing among the urban electorate, instead of just a shift in support among the Chinese community as some BN leaders have said.