Former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

Politicians and social workers in Penang believe that Disraeli's quote was spot-on when perusing the population statistics released by the Penang Statistics Department last December.

The official population statistics revealed that non-Malays make up 60% while the Malays make up 40% of Penang's estimated 1.493 million people

In 1990, the non-Malays were estimated to be 80% while the Malays were only over 20%. The dramatic increase in the Malay population growth and equally dramatic decrease in non-Malay population in Penang over a 15-year period has prompted critics to question the data validity.

"The racial composition is inaccurate," said Penang DAP secretary Danny Law Heng Kiang.

Over the past 15 years, the Chinese population has gone down from nearly 70% to 43%, while the Indian population has remained unchanged.

It is widely perceived that Indian population in the state alone should make up more than the official 10 per cent, if the approximately one million annual Taipusam festival-crowd were to be taken into account.

Law believes the population statistics was another Umno political ploy to wrest control of the state chief ministership, currently held by Gerakan acting president Dr Koh Tsu Koon.

Since 1957, Penang has been the only state in Malaysia to be led by a non-Malay chief minister.

Why so few Malay voters?

By increasing the Malay population to be on par with the Chinese, Umno can stake its claim at least for a rotation of the chief minister's post like it was done in Sabah in the past.

The voters' list in 2004 revealed that Chinese make up at least 56 percent of the state's 672,361 registered voters while the Malays constitute only 33 percent.

Law is curious on how Umno could `allow' so many Malays to remain unregistered as voters when they make up 40 percent of the population.

"Umno has always embarked on a Malay voters registration drive. With its efficient machinery, mobility and financial strength, surely the party could have assisted all eligible Malays to register as voters in Penang.

"It's shocking that Umno had failed to do this," he said.

Law was also surprised that the Election Commission has failed to increase Malay-majority seats in Penang in the last electoral delineation exercise to reflect the racial composition proportionately.

Although the Malays officially constitute 40 per cent of the population, they only dominate 15 of the 40 state constituencies while the non-Malays dominate the remaining 25 seats.

"The commission would not have allotted so many seats to non-Malays if the official population data was accurate," said a cynical Law.

Due to lack of effective mechanism, local NGO Save Ourselves secretary BK Ong said it would be difficult to verify the data.

He said the statistics department should reveal how the data was collected, reasons behind the surging increase and decrease in population ratio and comparative constituency breakdown with the latest voters' registration list.

"Without this, the data would remain doubtful because the public would be suspicious that something is amiss," he said.

Contentious political issue

Racial composition has always been a contentious political issue in Chinese-dominated Penang, as state Umno leaders have never hidden their desire to wrest control of the coveted chief minister's post.

Thus local leaders have frequently challenged the validity and accuracy of the official population data.

Many believe it was political ploy designed by Umno to take over as the states's chief minister.

Aliran treasurer Anil Netto noted that the quarrel over the population data was fuelled by communal politics espoused by politicians, from both the ruling and opposition parties.

He suggested that Umno's rhetoric `Ketuanan Melayu' (Malay Supremacy) euphoria was the main reason for communal politicisation.

He thought everyone should avoid falling into the communal trap that uses racial composition as a yardstick to stake a claim for the chief ministership.

"Quality, dynamic and progressive leadership should be the criteria to choose a chief minister, notwithstanding whether one is a Malay, Chinese or Indian.

"One should be able to eradicate poverty, eliminate illiteracy, crush corruption, improve quality of living, and allow democracy, good governance and transparency to flourish.

"That's more important than one's racial background," Netto said.