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Cross-ethnic Vote-pooling in West Malaysia 79

their public statements, DAP leaders have consciously emphasized seeing
themselves rst and foremost as Malaysian citizens, albeit without denying
their cultural identity as Chinese. During the campaign, DAP candidates also
tried to woo Malay voters by showcasing the decade-long track record of the
DAP-led Penang state government, which had not neglected the welfare of the
Malay community or the state Islamic bureaucracy. Moreover, DAP’s decision
to set aside its rocket symbol to adopt a common logo for electoral contests
was not without strong objections from some of the party’s grassroots leaders,
but might well have helped some Malay voters to overcome psychological
barriers to supporting a DAP candidate.
Horowitz (1985: 410) remarks that the emergence of genuine competition
between two multiethnic parties or alliances would be an indication either of
‘the presence of broad sectors of moderate opinion’ or that ‘ethnic divisions
were declining in importance’. We are now at a juncture, waiting to see
whether BN as an opposition multiethnic coalition will survive until the next
general elections. It should be borne in mind that conditions in Malaysian
society are no longer the same as they were during the 1950s and 1960s. Socio-
economic inequality, despite its persistence, no longer corresponds so clearly
with ethnicity and the urban–rural divide, nor does the urban–rural divide
itself follow such stark ethnic lines as in the past. How likely is it now that
Malaysian politics will stabilise around PH and BN, sustaining two multiethnic
coalitions? Within mere months after the elections, BN appeared to be rapidly
disintegrating, losing parties and seeing component parties contest by-elections
under their own ags, while the new UMNO leadership had gone even further
than under Najib toward forging a closer connection with PAS. e new
UMNO president, who seems reticent to distance himself from Najib and
has dismissed the allegations of Najib’s wrongdoings as political persecution,
appears to be preoccupied with recuperating the party’s lost Malay support
rather than carrying out any soul-searching within BN on what went wrong.
Given the fragmented nature of Malay voters in particular on the west coast,
UMNO may end up like PAS, as an ethnic ank party, playing the role of the
opposition, except if PH breaks up. ose leaders within both UMNO and
PAS who recognise that building a multiethnic coalition and moderating their
ethnic position could o er a more feasible path (back) to Putrajaya remain a
minority. e prospect of a stable two-multiethnic-coalition political system
remains uncertain.

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