A Perikatan Nasional Srikandi member reads a manifesto book at the Glenmarie Hotel and Resort November 14, 2021. – Picture by Hari Anggara
COMMENTARY, Nov 18 — The fight for Malay supremacy in the historical state of Melaka ends tomorrow.
There won’t be a final grandstanding this time before official election campaigning ends when the clock strikes midnight.
The strict Covid-19 rules in place has put a stop to that, as well as pushed the political parties to come up with creative ways to take their campaign to social media to promote their respective election manifestos, and try and draw the attention of voters who now have a large pool of candidates to choose from.
There are three main coalitions fighting for the 28 state seats up for grabs this time — the Bersatu-led Perikatan Nasional (PN), the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN), and the multiracial Pakatan Harapan (PH).
Other parties, like the Datuk Ibrahim Ali-led Putra, or the 22 independent candidates, are there more to add colour than pose any real challenge in the election.
This battle for supremacy is actually a fight between two Malay-centric parties, Umno and Bersatu since the PH components — PKR, DAP, Amanah — have been consistent with its narrative to represent Melaka, and Malaysia, for all races.
The PH coalition is expected to retain the state seats it won in Election 2018, though there is a possibility it may lose two.
But for Umno and Bersatu, it’s a do-or-die fight. Two lions cannot be on one mountain, as the saying goes.
By rights, the Bersatu-led PN should romp home in this election since it has its coalition partner PAS, which was being wooed by Umno to stand with it under their Muafakat Nasional banner.
And so Umno is essentially propping up the BN in this race on its shoulders — MCA and MIC only have a few seats.
But Bersatu’s success in getting PAS on its side does not actually benefit the PN coalition.
This is because the conservative PAS has no solid nor significant base in Melaka as the Malays here are more open and tolerant of the other races.
There is also a rift between the Islamist party’s central leadership and its Melaka grassroots members. The grassroots supporters have been helping with putting up Umno and BN flags around Melaka as they desire a PAS-Umno partnership under the Muafakat Nasional banner in the next general election.
Bersatu itself is a relatively young party and has not had time to spread its influence around since its founding.
Given such a scenario and with just a day to go, the Bersatu-led PN is actually on the backfoot in this race.
But in politics, anything is possible. There may be enough time in the next 24 hours for Bersatu to throw its hidden aces on the table.