• Burmese
Saturday, July 12, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
25 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Asia

After Disputed Election, Tensions Rise in Malaysia

Simon Roughneen by Simon Roughneen
May 9, 2013
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0 0
A A
After Disputed Election

Demonstrators attend a rally in protest of Sunday's election result at a stadium in Kelana Jaya

2.9k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

GEORGETOWN, Malaysia — Tens of thousands of black-garbed Malaysians gathered in a football stadium on Wednesday night to hear opposition leaders denounce the outcome of Sunday’s election, which extended the Barisan Nasional’s 56 year run in office.

The vote was marred by cheating, say supporters of the Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) opposition, clad in black as a protest against the result.

Seeking a recount for 29 seats that he contends were won by dubious means, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim told the crowd in the opposition stronghold of Selangor—a business and industry hub near Kuala Lumpur—that “I will not quit until we reach Putrajaya [the administrative capital], until we expose all [fraud] and claim Putrajaya for the rakyat [people].”

RelatedPosts

Parading Comedians and Machines for Election Circus; Rousing the Military Vote; and More

Parading Comedians and Machines for Election Circus; Rousing the Military Vote; and More

July 12, 2025
39
Anti-Coup Icon Explains Urgent Call for NUG Reform

Anti-Coup Icon Explains Urgent Call for NUG Reform

July 11, 2025
224
Myanmar Junta Chief Thanks Trump for Shutting Down VOA and RFA

Myanmar Junta Chief Thanks Trump for Shutting Down VOA and RFA

July 11, 2025
754

Malaysia’s newly re-elected Prime Minister Najib Razak dismissed Anwar’s claims, saying the vote was above-board.

“The election was free and fair, and passed off peacefully without major incident. Yet the opposition has spent three days hunting for instances of alleged malpractice to tie together to support their preconceived theory that the election was unfair,” said a spokesperson for Najib, whose coalition is also known as the National Front or simply BN.

Nonetheless the opposition seems set on campaigning against the result, planning additional rallies in the coming days, with gatherings scheduled for the Perak state capital Ipoh—a region won by the BN—and in Penang, where opposition parties routed the BN.

Overall, the BN won on a reduced majority from the last election in 2008—133 seats to 89 this time versus 140-82 five years ago. This year, however, the BN lost the popular vote on a 51 percent to 47 percent margin, heightening opposition supporters’ concerns about a flawed electoral system.

The opposition believes that Malaysia’s first-past-the-post voting system, together with the mix of varying-sized constituencies, has stacked the deck against the opposition, given the disproportion between votes and seats in its favor. Anwar said he has specific allegations of cheating that he wants the country’s electoral commission to investigate.

Dzukefly Ahmad, a senior figure in the opposition who narrowly lost his own seat on Sunday, told The Irrawaddy that “we think the irregularities warrant an investigation.”

There have long been calls for reform of Malaysia’s electoral system, with central Kuala Lumpur shut down in 2011 and 2012 as two massive street protests calling for electoral reform were met with tear gas and water cannon fire from police. The BN government implemented some political reforms in the almost two years since the July 2011 protest, but those changes, alongside an economy growing at 5 percent, were not enough to regain the BN’s two-thirds majority lost in 2008.

The platform was enough, however, to return the BN to office with a reduced, and now contested, majority.

And while the opposition supporters—a mix of urban, middle-class Malaysians of all ethnic groups, as well as backers of Malaysia’s Islamist party—have expressed dissatisfaction with the election outcome, the days since the vote have seen a rise in tensions between Chinese-Malaysian leaders of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) and ethnic Malay BN politicians. Of particular controversy has been BN’s United National Malays Organization (UMNO), which emerged as the country’s biggest party by far after Sunday’s election, winning 88 seats, up from 79 in 2008.

UMNO-owned newspaper Utusan sparking anger with a headline asking, “What more do the Chinese want?” while former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, still an overweening figure in Malaysian politics, told media that Malaysia’s Chinese community—a quarter of the country’s population—had been taken in by the DAP’s “propaganda” to topple a “corrupt Malay” government.

Najib said on Wednesday that “the DAP had stoked racial sentiments to gain their support and used the mantra ‘Ubah’ [Malay for ‘change’] to turn a large segment of the Chinese against us,” referring to BN.

It is thought that Najib is likely to face a leadership challenge later this year, from elements within UMNO unhappy at his failure to regain the two-thirds majority lost in 2008.

The DAP emerged as the second-biggest party in Malaysia after the election, winning 38 seats, while BN-linked Chinese parties saw their representation halved. DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng criticized BN attempts to portray ethnic Chinese as “scapegoats” and frame the election results as a “Chinese-versus-Malay” vote.

Dzukefly Ahmad’s Islamist PAS party competed with Najib’s UMNO for rural Malay votes in Sunday’s election, losing two of the 23 seats it won in 2008. PAS believes that the governing parties played a part in heightening ethnic tensions in the run-up to the vote.

“They were instilling fear in the heartland that a vote for PAS would mean a vote for DAP and therefore a vote against Malay interests,” Ahmad told The Irrawaddy. The re-elected BN says it campaigned on a solid economic record and, contrary to opposition claims, on a message of ethnic harmony.

In some regions, local issues played a part in the election outcome. In Kuantan, local concerns about the environmental impact of a rare-earths processing plant outside the city prompted the opposition to say that if it won the election, it would move to close the US$800 million plant, the largest such facility outside China, and run by Australia’s Lynas.

Rare earths are a set of 17 minerals needed for high-tech industries and domestic electronic goods. In 2010, China, which currently dominates global rare-earths production, squeezed its supply of the minerals to Japan during tensions over disputed islands in the East China Sea, prompting concerns elsewhere about finding alternative sources for rare earths.

The Lynas facility could contribute 20 percent of the world’s supply of rare earths, proponents say. However, Bun Teet Tan, head of the Save Malaysia Stop Lynas campaign, told The Irrawaddy that the local election results showed that city residents remained opposed to the rare-earths plant, which looks set to continue operations after the BN win.

“We have successfully captured all parliamentary and state seats in and around Kuantan. This speaks volumes about how the residents feel about the Lynas issue,” he said.

Your Thoughts …
Simon Roughneen

Simon Roughneen

Contributor

Similar Picks:

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang
Burma

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang

by Hein Htoo Zan
November 28, 2023
98.5k

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army troops are opening roads and pathways through forests for people to flee Kokang’s capital as...

Read moreDetails
Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public
Burma

Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public

by The Irrawaddy
February 7, 2024
89.9k

People’s Defense Force says junta troops told every household in the village to send one member to witness the double...

Read moreDetails
Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State
War Against the Junta

Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State

by The Irrawaddy
November 29, 2023
87.1k

Brotherhood Alliance member says it now has complete control of Kokang’s northernmost section after the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 125...

Read moreDetails
Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks
Burma

Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks

by The Irrawaddy
December 4, 2023
59k

The junta said deserters would not be punished for minor crimes, highlighting the military’s shortage of troops as resistance offensives...

Read moreDetails
As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue
Burma

As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue

by The Irrawaddy
April 19, 2024
47k

The junta’s No. 2 has not been seen in public since April 3, sparking rumors that he was either gravely...

Read moreDetails
Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow
Burma

Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow

by The Irrawaddy
February 12, 2024
44.8k

Ethnic armed grouping says it will continue Operation 1027 offensive until goal of ousting the junta is achieved. 

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Ethnic Activists Warn of Surge in Land Grabs After Ceasefires

Ethnic Activists Warn of Surge in Land Grabs After Ceasefires

The Dictators: Part 10—Than Shwe Enjoys Absolute Power

The Dictators: Part 10—Than Shwe Enjoys Absolute Power

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

‘Reforms Are Not Optional’: Prominent Activist Urges NUG to Act Before It’s Too Late

‘Reforms Are Not Optional’: Prominent Activist Urges NUG to Act Before It’s Too Late

3 days ago
1.1k
Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

3 days ago
1k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Deploying Conscripts in Major Push to Reclaim Lost Territory

    Myanmar Junta Deploying Conscripts in Major Push to Reclaim Lost Territory

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Chief Thanks Trump for Shutting Down VOA and RFA

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Chinese Investment Reshapes Myanmar’s N. Shan as MNDAA Consolidates Power

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • KIA Denies Rumor Chief Under House Arrest in China

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Not a Witch Hunt’: Upholding Survivor-Centered Justice in Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.