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Cross-ethnic Vote-pooling in West Malaysia 63

led to its breakup. e current victorious coalition, Pakatan Harapan (PH),
was then formed in September 2015, when Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah),
the product of ‘progressive’ leaders in PAS who broke away to form their own
party, joined hands with DAP and Keadilan. Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia
(Bersatu), a splinter group from UMNO formed in September 2016, joined
PH in 2017. Unprecedentedly, this recon gured opposition coalition agreed
to contest the 2018 general elections using a single logo, hence presenting its
candidates in a single slate, just as BN does.
In the meantime, the BN’s multiethnic support base had su ered progressive
erosion since the 2008 general elections. Even though the DAP, Keadilan, and
PAS still used their respective logos while contesting the 2013 general elections
as PR, there were indications that PR had begun bene tting from cross-ethnic
vote-pooling. e clearest example was that eight PAS candidates won in state
seats with less than 60 per cent Malay voters.
By applying the lens of cross-ethnic vote-pooling, this chapter examines
the changing ethnic distribution of electoral support for the major ‘Chinese
parties’ on either side of Malaysia’s political divide between the 2004 and 2018
general elections, against the backdrop of the evolving ethnic landscape of the
party system in West Malaysia since the 1990s. It also assesses the extent of
4
Malay support for the MCA and DAP in seats where they engaged in one-on-
one versus three-cornered contests (in the latter cases, with PAS) in 2018, in
Malaysia’s 14th general elections. 5
In view of the shifting ethnic pattern of electoral support for PH and
BN, this chapter concludes that the advantage in cross-ethnic vote-pooling
has shifted from BN to PH. UMNO overplayed race and religion in an
attempt to retain Malay support. at stance, together with nancial scandals
and unpopular economic and nancial policies, further alienated Chinese
voters, whose support had already diminished in the 2013 general elections.
Meanwhile, opposition parties that used to be monoethnic had successfully
reinvented themselves to work in a united front, forging a multiethnic
consensus for change. An assessment of Malay support for DAP candidates in
these constituencies provides an idea of the extent of cross-ethnic vote-pooling
DAP candidates enjoyed by contesting as part of PH.

e Evolution of Chinese Support for BN

Most analysts regard Chinese voters as having been overwhelmingly supportive
of the opposition PH in the 2018 general elections. Yet this has not always
been the case. BN had successfully rallied substantial Chinese support behind

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