Analyst: MIC, MCA will lose out on Malay votes without BN

Without Umno, MCA and MIC will have a hard time recapturing the Malay votes it garnered in the seats they won at the 14th general election, a political analyst claimed today.

According to Universiti Malaya's associate professor Awang Azman Awang Pawi, the same seats could go to BN or Pakatan Harapan in any subsequent elections, if the two parties exit BN.

"If MIC and MCA carry out their wish, I believe BN or Harapan would win the seats in the next election.

"Let's say they leave BN to form a new alliance, and suddenly younger, fresher parties representing the Indians and the Chinese appear and join BN, of course, this will only be troublesome and disadvantageous for the two parties," he was quoted as saying in a report by Sinar Harian.

Awang said MIC and MCA, which had been part of the ruling alliance with Umno since 1957 up to last year, should understand the racial rhetoric spouted by Umno in the recent Semenyih by-election was only meant for campaigning.

"These statements (by Umno) are not new, but why all of a sudden are they (MIC and MCA) hurt? Is it because BN is not the ruling coalition now?

"When BN was in government, they did not care to know what Umno said, as long as their political standing as ministers and deputies was maintained, this is the question now," he reportedly said.

Hence, the analyst told Sinar Harian that MIC and MCA were "shortening their life span" by contemplating such a move.

"The question is, which party would join them in a new alliance, they, themselves, don't even know. Of course, it won't be DAP or PKR as they are already in an alliance of their own, unless it is a smaller party," Awang was quoted as saying.

A smaller party, however, would not have a big impact on any new alliance, he added.

This comes in the wake of a joint statement by the two long-standing BN component party members that they are "moving on" and exploring a "new alliance" following Umno's continued silence on recent racial remarks made by its leaders. 

The statement, signed by party presidents SA Vigneswaran and Wee Ka Siong, however, did not specify they would exit BN.

Instead, a source told Malaysiakini they were exploring kicking Umno out of BN.

During the lead up to the Semenyih by-election earlier this month, BN secretary-general Nazri Abdul Aziz was alleged, among other things, to have called for vernacular Chinese and Tamil schools to be closed, which he later denied. 

Meanwhile, Umno acting president Mohamad Hasan stated that Malays have been sidelined in their land following the GE14 at the expense of penumpang (squatters). 

It is believed that Mohamad, also known as Tok Mat, was referring to the number of non-Malays in the Dewan Rakyat.

Umno's subsequent victory in wresting Semenyih from Harapan, was attributed to its close cooperation with PAS.