Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak has warned that parties campaigning in the twin by-elections have forgotten that racial unity is the key to victory.

“We are beginning to not see the trees for the forest and the campaigning is going totally off-tangent.

“Whoever is going to win these two by-elections would be the party that can pull all the races together, and not the party that is trying to divide the races or play the race card.

“And that is something campaigners from both sides need to take into consideration if they want to see their party emerge the winner,” Salleh said in a blog post today.

This is because, he explained, the two constituencies being contested are roughly two-thirds Malay and one-third non-Malay.

Hence, no one ethnic group can assure victory, he said. However, Salleh did not elaborate on the issues involved.

“It has to be a unity of all races before you can be assured of winning the by-election, especially when it is not a straight fight and all the candidates are Malay,” he said.

Salleh added it was normal for there to be some dissatisfaction regarding the choice of candidates in any party from either side of the political divide.

However, he said, BN had always been able to overcome such hurdles and he was confident it would do so again.

Testing ground for Harapan

Salleh pointed out that the two by-elections were important as they were “testing grounds” to see whether Pakatan Harapan could make an impact in the next general election.

“If they win these two by-elections, or even just one of the two by-elections, that would give the opposition the impetus for the next general election.

“If not, they will suffer a setback that will take them a long time to overcome and which will never happen before or by the next general election,” he said.

The by-elections in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar were triggered by the deaths of both incumbents in a helicopter crash during the run-up to the May 7 Sarawak election.

The Election Commission has set June 18 as the polling date for the two parliamentary seats.

Kuala Kangsar will see a four-cornered fight among BN, PAS, Amanah and an Independent. Sungai Besar sees a three-cornered contest among BN, PAS and Amanah.