Going into GE13, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was confident that the Indian vote was firmly with Barisan Nasional after nearly two years of doling out cash and other goodies to Indian groups.
He and other BN politicians were also boosted by the signing of a memorandum with Hindraf just before the general election, promising Waythamoorthy the position of deputy minister.
Guess what? BN lost the Indian vote to Pakatan Rakyat. The percentage of Indian support for BN dropped from 51.1% in 2008 to 45.1% this year.
This information was culled from a study by Merdeka Center of the voting patterns in 222 parliamentary seats.
Support for BN from Indian votes only increased in Kedah (11%) and Pahang (3.1%). It dropped sharply in the urban seats in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Johor, where Pakatan Rakyat found traction with its focus on BN's spotty record on fighting corruption, abuse of power, and unhappiness over unresolved issues involving minorities.
The swing away from BN was strong in Penang (14.9%), where Indians formed 10.9% of the electorate, in Johor (13.6%) where Indians were 6.6% and in Kuala Lumpur (10.2%) where 10.8% of voters were Indians.
The Merdeka Center survey also confirmed the trend of the Chinese swing away from BN. Only 24.4% of Chinese voters supported the ruling coalition, a drop of just under 20% from 2008.
Following BN's inability to win two-thirds control of Parliament for the second consecutive election, Najib and other BN leaders accused the community of betrayal, coining the phrase "Chinese tsunami" to explain BN's poor electoral performance.
The Chinese swing away from BN was strongest in Johor, which the DAP targeted as a frontline state by fielding a few of its national leaders, including Lim Kit Siang.
The Chinese were 39.4% of the voters in Johor. In 2008, BN obtained 52.7% of their vote. On May 5, this figure dropped to 21.3%.
In Pahang, where there was much concern over the Lynas rare earth project and the use of cyanide in gold mines in Chinese-heavy constituencies, the swing was a hefty 28% away from BN. In 2008, 51.4% of the Chinese voters supported BN. This time, the vote sank to 23.4%
In Kuala Lumpur, where the Chinese were 53.8% of the voters, only 12.3% voted for BN this time, compared with 30.1% in 2008. – August 13, 2013.
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