Malaysia Matters Podcast

Political factions are making it a bitter fight for the Malay vote prior to Tuesday’s election in Permatang Pauh. Each side has accused the other of race-baiting - and in the process seem to be guilty of doing so themselves.

Najib was quoted in Bernama, the state run news agency, as saying that: ”Anwar is so desperate to become prime minister that he is willing to pawn the dignity and principle of the Malays like opening Universiti Teknologi Mara to the other races who are allowed to establish their own universities.” 

Najib said those who like to politicise the dignity of the race, religion and nation should be rejected as a leader.

As reported by VOA, Wong Chin Huat, an analyst in Anwar’s camp, claimed that “UMNO has stoked racist sentiments during the campaign period, including comparing the ethnic Chinese to pigs, which are considered unclean by Muslim Malaysians.”

“The UMNO machinery has been playing up ethnic sentiments to its height. They openly compare Chinese as pigs,” added Wong Chin Huat. “You never do that publicly, never put that in a campaign and this time around UMNO used that in a Malay area hoping that would push up the Malay support to create that sense that if you have Anwar winning, the Chinese and the Indians are going to dominate the country.”

Winning the Malay majority electorate in Permatang Pauh is seen as the key to controlling whether there will be substantial enough defections from UMNO to shift the balance of power to Anwar and the opposition and knock down the BN government for the first time. The tipping point for substantial enough defections, according to Wong Chin Huat, would be for Anwar to capture 70 - 80 percent of the Malay vote. He needs a total of 30 to defect from the government.

Polls close at 5:00pm (0800 GMT) on Tuesday. There are 58,459 eligible voters.