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In the course of the week The Malaysian Insider presents a series of reports to give an overview of what has happened and help make sense of a new Malaysia that has evolved 100 days after the watershed Election 2008 on March 8. Regular contributor Leslie Lau examines where and on what the influential Chinese swing vote rests on.
Along Jalan Maharajalela in Kuala Lumpur, the grand old KL and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall Building stands as one of the oldest landmarks in the city. And adorning the balcony of the two-storey building is a large billboard which gives a daily count of the number of days since the Damansara Chinese Primary School was closed in Petaling Jaya in 2001. The closure of the school, amid widespread protests, has grown from a local issue into one which symbolises how the Chinese community’s perception and suspicions of the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) fed into the anger towards the ruling coalition in the March general elections. Three months after the Chinese overwhelmingly voted for the DAP and PKR in answer to the rallying cry that "a vote for MCA or Gerakan is a vote for Umno", the heart of the community’s dissatisfaction with the government is still the issue of Chinese education. Writing in his blog, former MCA vice-president Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek articulates the frustrations of the Chinese. "It has been a sore point among the Chinese that the government has not been fair in dispersing money to Chinese schools because under the Education Act, most of the land of Chinese schools that belong to the school board are not entitled to full funding when it comes to development. "This has always been a sore point for the Chinese educationists and this is also a point that causes the loss of confidence and votes for MCA and the BN government." More recently, the controversy over how scholarships were awarded by the Public Services Department (PSD) appeared to have also touched a raw nerve among the Chinese, who have always felt many of its top scorers were indiscriminately denied scholarships by the government. As both MCA and Gerakan head toward party elections, the leaders of the two main Chinese-based parties in BN are expected to become more strident in expressing their views. "A major fight is already shaping up in MCA. Everyone will want to show how they are the champions of the Chinese now," a senior MCA central committee member told The Malaysian Insider. MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting has argued that the lesson of the March election results is for the party to take a more multi-racial approach. But his critics say that would be impossible unless Umno also takes a more multi-racial approach. For now, the DAP and PKR, the two biggest beneficiaries of Chinese dissatisfaction with the BN coalition, still largely retain the support of the community. "I would like to give the Pakatan Rakyat state governments a chance. And if they form the next federal government, we should give them a chance too. If they mess up we can vote them out," said John Chin, an accountant in Petaling Jaya. The major obstacle against the Chinese fully supporting the fledgling Pakatan Rakyat coalition remains PAS. Long held suspicions and objections against the intention of PAS to set up an Islamic state, or at the very least to inject more so-called Islamic values into governance, still cloud Chinese and non-Muslim feelings about the Islamic party. The recent call by PAS Youth for the Selangor government to ban concert appearances by two female Malay singers it considered indecent acts, would not have helped PAS in its efforts to win over the Chinese. Even in Perak, where Datuk Nizar Jamaluddin, the PAS menteri besar, appears to have won over the Chinese, the support shown for the Pakatan Rakyat is largely due to the comfort of knowing DAP and PKR legislators are the overwhelming majority in the state coalition. The PR state governments of Selangor, Perak and Penang, the three states with significant Chinese populations, are still enjoying the benefits of a honeymoon period. With MCA and Gerakan facing a period of internal strife, the leaders of DAP and PKR can also expect to remain for some time as the voice of Chinese interests. - THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER But Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi’s introduction of popular reforms and the distrust of PAS mean Chinese political support could still be up for grabs again soon.
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The Blogs 
Ke ke ke! Leslie, can you try again. Reforms from AMENO and Dollah? Not only the Chinese, but Indians and Malays are with DAP, PKR and PAS. How do you feel about it?