KAJANG With its three largest parties being ethnic-based, the BN has often been criticised for parochial and racially-polarising politics unsuited to multiracial urban Malaysia.

Fighting a by-election in multi-racial Kajang, far from communal heartlands, the BN campaign seems to be changing tack.

If in the Merlimau by-election, BN-friendly ‘volunteers’ screened videos accusing the DAP of promoting Chinese supremacy, this time, the BN is putting its best muhibbah foot forward.

The difference is that Merlimau was a 66 percent Malay-majority seat while, Kajang is a better reflection of the nation with 48 percent Malays, 41 percent Chinese and 10 percent Indian voters.

An hour’s drive away from downtown Kuala Lumpur, Kajang is also a highly-educated and informed constituency.  

A Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Election poll in the lead-up to the campaign showed that cost of living is the constituents’ top concern, showing grouses over BN’s economic stewardship.

In response, BN’s standard billboards trumpeting progress, stability and development are replaced with those showcasing the multi-coloured faces of BN’s many (mostly ethnic-based) parties to rival Pakatan Rakyat’s multiracial image.

Pakatan dividing the races, says Umno

The reason for this lies in the numbers.

In the 13th general election, MCA’s Lee Ban Seng had the support of about 65 percent of Malay constituents but was trounced in Chinese-majority areas. This resulted in a defeat by close to 7,000 votes to PKR’s Lee Chin Cheh.

To slash that winning majority, BN has to appeal to the Chinese community and to do so it has to counter the ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ image it carries, emanating, rightly or wrongly, from anchor party Umno.

Outside of Umno’s strong ground support for MCA’s campaign, there is also a move to sully Pakatan Rakyat’s egalitarian brand.

“What I am most upset about is that from information we received from the ground, they campaign differently for different racial groups.

“For Malays, they say, don’t vote for Chew Mei Fun as she is a Chinese woman, then they tell the Indians something else. Wah!

“Then they go to the Chinese and say they want to abolish the (bumiputera) quota and other privileges. They’ll later poke the Malays a different way. We disagree with this!” Umno Wanita chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil told reporters on Friday.

Although Shahrizat ( centre in photo ) could be referring to the door-to-door campaigns, Malaysiakini ’s visit to Pakatan ceramahs found a multiracial crowd and multiracial speakers, with no overt reference to ethicity or ethnic-based policies.

At a hypermarket yesterday, PAS and PKR campaigners were observed approaching shoppers of different ethnicities in a similar fashion, while those lining up to snap photos with PKR candidate Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail were also of various races.

MCA tells voters to vote Chinese

Interestingly, it was at a dinner hosted by BN’s Chew at a Chinese restaurant in Kajang town on Wednesday that ethnicity became the topic of dicussion.

“Kajang has always been a Chinese seat, but now the opponent is allowing a Malay candidate. If this Malay candidate wins, I am afraid we will lose this seat,” MCA’s former Kajang assemblyperson TC Choong told the mostly-Chinese crowd in Mandarin.

“We talked to Umno to say no matter what, we must send a Chinese candidate against a Malay candidate from PKR because we have 4,000-5,000 Chinese voters here.”

He said that if Wan Azizah, a Malay, wins then there will be no chance for “a single Chinese” person, be it from the BN or Pakatan, to contest the seat again.

“So I hope everyone can support Chew, because if she wins we can keep this a Chinese seat.”

Echoing him, Chew said that today BN only has Umno (read: Malay) representatives in the Selangor legislative assembly and voting her in would make for a better state opposition.

She added that raising the Chinese votes to 30 percent of total votes will prove to the BN that MCA speaks for the Chinese and can rejoin the cabinet.

Her statement indicates that MCA is not really interested in winning the election or even truly shaming PKR by slashing its majority. For the MCA, it is simply a matter of political survival.

Will the earnest appeal help raise MCA’s votes to prove it is not redundant? Thin turnout by locals at its events midway into the campaign suggests otherwise, but there are still six days to go.

Additional reporting by Kow Kwan Yee and Zikri Kamarulzaman.