A by-election this Sunday in the sleepy town of Ketari will be a crucial test for Malaysia's fragile opposition ahead of general elections due in 2004, politicians and analysts say.

Standing in the heart of Ketari is a giant replica of a red rocket, the logo of DAP, which is fighting alone for the first time since it quit an opposition alliance six months ago.

"This could be the last by-election before the next general election. It will be a a test to see if opposition parties can still work together for larger objectives to break the political hegemony of the National Front," DAP's spokesman Ronnie Liu told AFP .

The Chinese-based DAP was once part of the Alternative Front alliance with PAS, Keadilan and PRM.

But it withdrew soon after the Sept 11 terror attacks in the United States over PAS's goal of setting up an Islamic state if it ousted Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Barisan Nasional coalition.

Liu admitted that the DAP cannot "fight the war alone against the almighty BN" and both PAS and Keadilan were helping to lobby crucial Malay support in Ketari, setting the path for future cooperation.

DAP candidate Choong Siew Onn is pitched in a straight fight with the ruling coalition's Yum Ah Ha for the hearts and minds of some 17,400 Ketari voters, who are mostly farmers.

Extra mile

This is Choong's third shot at Ketari. The two local men belong to the Kwangsai clan, as do some 70 percent of the Chinese community in Ketari.

BN, which includes parties from all three ethnic groups, held the seat until the death of Loke Koon Kam earlier this month, but its majority plunged sharply from 2,900 to 231 in the 1999 general elections.

This slim majority has made the BN go the extra mile, wheeling out big guns led by Deputy Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to campaign in Ketari, which is just an hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur.

The town, which lies in a valley fringed by undulating hills, has taken on a carnival air, dotted with posters and banners of the DAP's red rocket and the BN's weighing scale.

The DAP, knowing it cannot match the BN's political and financial resources, has projected itself as the underdog and conducted beauty sessions for women, karaoke and children's art contests to woo voters.

While the by-election is not seen as a true test of the national popularity of either side because of the dominance of local issues, analysts say it could provide a clue to voting patterns in the next general election.

Proxy fight

Abdul Razak Baginda, executive director of the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre, said the DAP had been left "somewhat handicapped" without a Malay partner.

"It will be interesting to see who the Malays will go for. This will give us some notion of the future. If they still support DAP even without PAS, it means nothing has changed," he said.

Some see the by-election as a proxy fight between PAS and Mahathir's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

PAS made advances in Pahang in 1999 polls and has made no secret of its aim of taking over the state in the next election. PAS has six seats in the 38-member state assembly, DAP one and Keadilan one.

But analysts said UMNO's position had strengthened in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks, with its moderate form of Islamic rule seen as a safe haven by the country's multi-ethnic population.

An Asian diplomat said it would be difficult to draw conclusions from the by-election as bread-and-butter issues such as land titles for farmers play a key role in swinging votes.

The Ketari by-election is the sixth since November 1999 general elections. BN has won four out of five contests, with Keadilan taking one.