Even though BN's share of Chinese and Indian votes increased in the Teluk Intan by-election, the ruling coalition need not be overly grateful to them, according to controversial academician Ridhuan Tee Abdullah.

"Whatever the reason given for the increase in Chinese and Indian votes (for BN), the attention must still be on Malay Muslim voters.

"Do not be too thankful to other people and forget our own," he said in a column in Sinar Harian today.

BN successfully wrested the Teluk Intan parliamentary seat from DAP after Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong defeated DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang's political secretary Dyana Sofya Mohd Yusof by a 238-vote majority.

Ridhuan warned BN not to get carried away by its win, pointing out that even though its Chinese and Indian support increased, there was a drop in Malay support in the by-election.

He related his conversation with a Teluk Intan voter who was an Umno activist but complained of cronyism, corruption and abuse of power in the government and said he would vote for the other side.

"More shocking is both his children who are teachers returned to Teluk Intan to vote for the ‘ultra kiasu’ to teach BN a lesson," said the senior lecturer at the National Defence University.

'Ultra kiasu won in by-election'

Ridhuan said BN needed to address this problem or the "ultra kiasu" would become more emboldened to win over Malay voters.

At first, it appears Ridhuan was referring to DAP when using the term "ultra kiasu" but that became unclear after he lumped MCA and Gerakan together with the opposition party.

Describing the Teluk Intan by-election as an "ultra kiasu" victory even though DAP lost, he gave four reasons.

Firstly, he said the ultra kiasu won because they would get two Chinese ministers, one from MCA and another from Gerakan.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had promised Mah would be made minister if he won, on top of MCA president Liow Tiong Lai who is also slated to join the cabinet.

Secondly, Ridhuan said it was an "ultra kiasu" win because they were able to garner Malay support and thirdly they put up a Malay candidate to improve perception that they were not racist.

Lastly, he said the "ultra kiasu" won against PAS as the Islamist party was made to campaign for a candidate who did not wear the hijab and rejected hudud.