Malaysia: Recent Trends and Challenges

6. The Malay Electorate in 2004: Reversing the 1999 Result?

John Funston 132 The Malay Electorate in 2004: Reversing the 1999 Result?* j o h n F u n s to n On 21 March the ruling National Front (Barisan Nasional, or BN) swept to its greatest electoral victory ever, winning 199 of 219 seats. The Opposition won only 20 seats, down from 45 in the smaller outgoing parliament.The Democratic Action Party (DAP) increased its representation by two to 12, but Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) declined from 27 to six, and Parti keADILan Malaysia (Keadilan) retained only one of its five seats. Unexpectedly, the BN even routed PAS and coalition ally Keadilan in the Malay heartland states. In 1999, it won 11 of 40 parliamentary seats in the four northernmost states; this time it took 33, representing a swing in the popular vote ranging from 4 per cent in Kedah to 16 per cent in Terengganu (refer to Tables 6.1 and 6.2). It reversed the 1999 result for the Terengganu state assembly (28 to four), strengthened its hold on the Kedah and Perlis assemblies, and just fell short of PAS in Kelantan (24 to 21). * The author is grateful to Bridget Welsh for her comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. 133 6: The Malay Electorate in 2004: Reversing the 1999 Result? Table 6.1 Results of 1999 and 2004 General Elections 2004 1999 Number of registered voters 10,276,173 9,566,188 (Terengganu) 455,924 387,339 Number of registered voters excluding those in uncontested wards 9,762,720 9,546,303 Number of parliamentary seats 219 193 Number of valid votes 6,895,729 6,658,999 Percentage of votes 70.63 69.75 (Terengganu) 85.5 79.9 (State) 86.9 79.9 Number of seats won BN 199 148 (UMNO) 110 72 PAS 6 27 DAP 12 10 PKM (Keadilan) 1 5 Other 1 3 Number of contested seats BN 219 193 PAS 84 63 PKM 58 59 DAP 44 46 Number of votes won BN 4,414,513 3,762,556 PAS 1,056,110 996,437 PKM 586,980 767,969 DAP 694,356 848,040 Percentage of parliamentary vote BN 64.02 56.5 PAS 15.32 15.0 PKM 8.51 11.5 DAP 10.07 12.7 Percentage of parliamentary seats BN 90.90 76.69 PAS 2.70 13.99 PKM 0.46 2.60 DAP 5.48 6.20 John Funston 134 The conduct of the elections and the result were warmly welcomed by world leaders and the international media. A US official congratulated Malaysia “on the conduct of the election and how the process was handled … the decision was made by the people of Malaysia and we’re happy the election went well”.1 The Australian declared that Malaysian elections “are free and fair … and they are very good news for everybody who understands that democracy is the best antidote to the Islamic fundamentalism [meaning PAS] that fosters political terrorism”.2 The Christian Science Monitor went even further: “The sweeping victory of Malaysia’s secular rulers … emphasises the narrow appeal of Muslim hard-liners in Southeast Asia, where strict religion-based politics run up against multiethnic realities. Muslim voters dealt a potentially knock-out blow to the conservative PAS.”3 The results were, however, more complicated than these analyses suggested, since the percentage of those supporting PAS actually slightly increased (from 15 per cent to 15.3 per cent). Why then did the National Table 6.1 cont’d 2004 1999 For Peninsula Malaysia only Number of valid votes 6,158,988 5,698,489 Number of votes won BN 3,931,678 3,157,426 PAS 1,051,889 990,437 PKM 546,089 699,851 DAP 618,288 771,145 Percentage of parliamentry vote BN 63.84 55.4 PAS 17.08 17.4 PKM 8.87 12.3 DAP 10.04 13.5 Source: Malaysian Election Commission. Adjusted to include the Pasir Puteh (Kelantan) seat initially declared for PAS but awarded to BN on appeal, but not the revised count for this electorate as it has not yet been issued by the EC. 135 6: The Malay Electorate in 2004: Reversing the 1999 Result? Table 6.2 Number of Contested Seats, Total Number of Votes, and Percentage of Votes in the 1999 and 2004 General Elections by State 2004 General Election 1999 General Election No. of No. of...