Closer UmnoPAS cooperation after Sandakan by-election

KOTA KINABALU: Gerakan National President Datuk Dr Dominic Lau Hoe Chai congratulated Pakatan Harapan (PH) for its victory in the Sandakan by-election, but he is worried that it will lead to closer cooperation between Umno and the PAS.

Lau said the Sandakan by-election results showed that the Chinese votes are still solid behind PH. This may not be a good thing for the Chinese community, because it will lead to the ruling and opposition parties compete more fiercely for the Malay support.

“DAP candidate won a landslide victory in the Sandakan by-election. It shows that the Opposition is still difficult to gain Chinese support, which will cause the Opposition to switch their focus to fight for Malay support,” he said in a statement yesterday.

He pointed out that in the previous by-elections in Rantau, Semenyih and Cameron Highlands, Umno and PAS have achieved good results. Now the Chinese votes in the Sandakan byelection did not waver, it will prompt Umno to abandon the Chinese votes and work more closely with PAS to fight for Malay votes.

Lau said in such a political environment, PH will certainly make some moves to compete with Umno and PAS for the Malay votes in order to stay in power. This will start a competition for Malay support and accelerate the Islamisation of the country.

For example, the PH government recently announced more spots for the matriculation programme with quota remains, which was a policy to please and win over the support of Malay voters.

Lau predicted that in order to compete with Umno and PAS for the Malay support, the PH government will introduce more policies unfavourable to non-Bumiputera communities in the future. In the event of a general election, it is likely that a government which only consists of Malays will be formed, an unhealthy situation would take place where Malays are in the government while Chinese are in the Opposition.