Commentary: Barisan Nasional’s tactical victory in Nenggiri by-election

CANBERRA: Fresh from Pakatan Harapan (PH)’s loss in the Sungai Bakap state by-election in Penang, Malaysia’s “Madani” coalition – which combines PH with its former foe Barisan Nasional (BN) – has won a separate state by-election in the rural seat of Nenggiri, Kelantan.
BN led the campaigning this time and won by a significant margin of 3,352 votes, or 22 per cent of the voters who turned out. This was despite Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) dominating Kelantan politics for nearly all of Malaysia’s post-colonial history. PAS lost to BN in Nenggiri, but had won in Sungai Bakap.
Voters in Nenggiri have been exceptional, however, and the area has long been a United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) stronghold. The party ran a strong candidate, Azmawi Fikri Abdul Ghani, who responded well to voters’ strong desire for rural development – especially to enable their participation in Malaysia’s economic recovery after the pandemic years.
Not all households are feeling the benefits of the nation’s stronger-than-expected 5.9 per cent GDP growth in the second quarter of 2024, nor are they all contributing to the same quarter’s household spending surge of 6 per cent.
UMNO responded directly to this desire. Its rank and file went door to door to promise voters federal development resources in a state whose lack of opportunities and infrastructure has driven many to move and seek work in the richer Klang Valley.
Nenggiri’s nearest town, Gua Musang, is now only a three-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur and no longer isolated in the peninsula’s forested interior. Off the highway, however, local workers and primary cultivators have struggled with transport to jobs and markets.
They have even had a hard time accessing cash, with no ATMs in the area before the by-election. Now, there are four.
The Madani win was not the only difference between Nenggiri and Sungai Bakap, however. The other key difference was that whereas PH failed to tackle PAS’ strategy of constantly insinuating that non-Malays are not true Malaysian citizens, BN did respond to it, albeit only tactically. Nevertheless, its response was effective.
In this case, BN used its UMNO-led campaign to reassert itself as the force best able to protect Malays and improve their rural livelihoods.
It began its media campaign with the UMNO Veterans’ Club pre-empting PAS’ tactics by telling its own coalition partner, the “Chinese” Democratic Action Party (DAP), to stay out of Nenggiri because the area is almost entirely Malay and Muslim.
UMNO leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who held the federal seat of Gua Musang from 1986 to 2022, reportedly wrote off DAP leaders as “not even proficient in Malay”, speaking to a widely held belief about Chinese Malaysians.
A quick glance at a television screen would disprove the claim in relation to most DAP politicians, but the point of the statement was to signal that UMNO is willing to contain the DAP’s power and Nenggiri voters do not need PAS to do so.
With that signal understood, UMNO later walked back these statements, suggesting the DAP could always help the campaign in other ways, if not on the ground. And help they did, by featuring in BN’s subsequent media cycle around PAS’ use of the term “kafir harbi”.
This term refers to unbelievers who are in a state of war against Muslims, justifying war against them in return. If interpreted literally, this “war” could possibly include killing them (members of the DAP).
To be clear, PAS has used this term metaphorically to describe its electoral “war” against the DAP for several years now. But the circulation of a PAS video featuring the term, and in the thick of the Nenggiri campaign, was a boon to BN.
The video featured PAS election banners in the background and state and federal PAS members in the foreground. “If there are still people who are going to vote for UMNO … it means they are willing to be ruled by kafir harbi,” said the speaker in the video, a PAS member and imam from Pasir Mas.
The following day, Malay Muslim (but not Chinese) DAP leaders demanded that PAS leaders apologise and condemn the speaker who used the term at the campaign rally where the video was recorded. As the DAP pointed out, the party is registered, operates legally within Malaysia’s constitutional framework, and participates in elections as it is entitled to.
Condemnations continued from various other quarters. Within two days, the Federal Territories Mufti had also issued a statement outlining that the term was not only out of bounds, but “extreme and outrageous work” when used against Malaysian citizens exercising their rights of citizenship.
Indeed, this is precisely why PAS uses the term. PAS wanted to suggest that Malaysia’s racial and religious minorities should not be afforded basic rights associated with citizenship. Using the term is one part of its multifaceted campaign against the constitutional provisions that establish these rights for all Malaysians.
Ultimately, the speaker caught in the video issued a public apology for using the term and was suspended from campaigning. On Aug 22, UMNO won the seat for BN and the Madani coalition.
PAS’ Nenggiri defeat shows its campaign strategy is not infallible. BN and PH can reverse its progress, and BN’s artful ground and media tactics demonstrate that there are ways of setting limits around PAS even without truly challenging the basis of the revulsion it holds and encourages against minority political participation.
Tactics are merely tactics, however. While they can help win the electoral battles the Madani coalition must wage to hold its state assembly seats and its federal government, PAS’ campaign against minority citizenship is aimed at destabilising much more than the government. It is aimed at Malaysia’s constitutional foundation and the structure of knowledge about nationhood, civics and ethics that is built on that foundation.
By failing to address this strategy in Sungai Bakap, and only addressing it on a tactical basis in Nenggiri, PH and BN are showing both their strengths and their weaknesses. They can win minor state by-elections with relative ease if they challenge PAS, but PAS’ campaign is wider than they care to acknowledge.
Amrita Malhi is a Visiting Fellow in the Malaysia Studies Programme, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. This commentary first appeared on the Institute’s blog, Fulcrum.