Implications of Dr M’s shaky position after Tanjong Piai loss

QUESTION TIME | The clear result from the Tanjong Piai by-election is that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s position has become rather shaky and untenable because he has lost support not only among non-Malays, especially the Chinese, but also among the Malays.

That the Chinese rejected the Harapan candidate from Mahathir’s Bersatu is no great surprise (except for the vehemence with which they did, as reflected by the large number of defections. The real surprise is the poor traction he got from the Malays.

The figures show that Barisan Nasional (BN) won with 25,466 votes - a huge majority of over 15,000 compared to Harapan’s 10,380 votes, dealing the worst by-election loss ever for a ruling party, a majority that could not have been achieved, except with desertion of both Malay and Chinese voters from Harapan.

Harapan’s support base dwindled from 46 percent to 26 percent of the votes, a swing of about 20 percentage points, while that of BN rose from 45 percent to some 66 percent...