The growing irrelevance of Umno’s partner

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 — The MCA, MIC, Gerakan and even PPP have only themselves to blame for coming to a stage where Umno is thinking seriously of reducing their seat allocation in the next general elections.

These non-Malay political parties in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition are growing in irrelevance among the racial constituencies they once represented.

At a retreat of Umno divisional leaders last week, a common refrain heard was that Umno should be less generous in giving up Malay-majority seats to representatives of MCA, MIC, Gerakan and other component parties.

MCA is again caught in a leadership tussle.

The general view among division chiefs was that the component parties were much weaker than Umno and would not be able to swing votes from the non-Malays or the Malays.

They are not wrong.

Firstly, these parties have been hit by infighting which has prevented them from speaking with a collective voice.

Secondly, they have been pushovers for so long that Umno officials have no qualms about sidelining them.

In the last few months, none of the component parties have been able to check the right wing tendencies of Umno.

The publication of the two books to hammer PKR politicians for “selling out” to non-Malays is just the latest slap in the face of Chinese- and Indian-based BN component parties.

The current scenario reignites a classic question in Malaysian politics. On one side an imperative to stand up for issues affecting their communities; on the other the risks of overreach and thereby affecting race relations either real or contrived.

The non-Malay parties’ inability in striking a balance has left them, through the years, as ineffective political representatives.

In Election 2008, Chinese and Indian voters in particular were so turned off by parties like MCA, MIC and Gerakan that they placed their faith in a loose opposition alliance of DAP, PKR and PAS.

More than one-and-a-half years on, the support for the opposition alliance — now known as the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) — remain strong among the Chinese and the Indians.

... As is MIC.

MCA and MIC have done very little to show why Chinese and Indians should once again back them.

Umno also lost votes last year to the opposition and increasingly feels the need to raise race rhetoric to regain votes from disaffected Malays or at least reenergise its own members.

The championing of issues related to “Malay rights” is like staple to the party faithful, despite the discomfort felt by non-Malay communities.

Under Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Umno has slowly begun to regain its footing.

A win this week in the Bagan Pinang by-election— which is likely — will serve to give Umno a much needed boost to get its members energised enough to take on a PR alliance still wracked with squabbles among its own disparate members.

For Umno and even some members of the Najib administration, it is becoming clear that MCA, MIC and Gerakan offer no solution to the problem of the non-Malay vote.

The best bet for Najib and BN is the economy.

Najib and Umno are finding their BN partners to be less than useful

If the economy picks up enough by the next general elections, significant numbers of Chinese and Indian voters could decide to back BN again.

For his part, Najib continues his own efforts in trying to court the non-Malay vote directly without the MCA and MIC.

From the perspective of the ordinary non-Malay voter, the MCA, MIC, and even Gerakan and PPP have not shown how they are able to stand up for the respective communities they represent.

On one issue after another, these parties have either kept silent or pretended to protest before ultimately acceding to Umno.

So if in the next general elections MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP are sidelined, they should not be surprised.

They were active participants in their own marginalisation.