Malaysia parties use China investments to sway Malay vote

Having resisted the march of progress for decades, stubbornly holding on to their land titles and proud Malay heritage, the settlers of Kampung Baru may well feel a sense of dread over the M101 Skywheel that will loom over their homes once it’s completed in 2020.
Not only are the 78-storey twin towers being developed by a Chinese Malaysian company, but the firm announced last week that  Shenzhen-based construction giant China Huashi Enterprises will build the 1.8 billion-ringgit (Bt14.3 billion) project.
Nationalism as political weapon 
The fear of becoming “slaves in our own land” has been a core trope in Malay nationalism ever since the days of Malaysia’s independence movement. A widely held belief among the ethnic majority is that the Chinese minority controls the economy, and Umno – the Malay-only ruling party – has leveraged on this fear to cement its political hegemony.
But with an election due in 18 months and expected much sooner, it’s not just Prime Minister Najib Razak’s party that is both feeding and feeding off this insecurity. Rivals in the breakaway Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), who are vigorously trying to oust him, have also weighed in with their own doomsday warnings.
Najib’s narrative is that if Umno falls, then the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP), the largest opposition outfit, will take control and dismantle various pro-Malay and Islamic institutions, even though the DAP has allied with PPBM, led by former Umno stalwarts Mahathir Mohamad and Najib’s sacked former deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin.
“Democracy and politics are a game of numbers. Who has the most seats wins. Even if the top post of the government is not given to it, the party with the most seats will effectively rule. I watch the pieces of the game and see that if the opposition wins, DAP will rule,” Najib said in Mahathir’s home state of Kedah last week.
On the other hand, PPBM is warning that the billions in Chinese money flooding the country at Najib’s invitation are a far greater threat. Last November, the PM returned from a week-long trip to Beijing with a whopping 144 billion ringgit in new deals, raising alarm over the sudden expansion of China’s already sizeable influence in Malaysia’s economy.
From ports to power, real estate to rail, and even e-commerce and education, China companies seem to be everywhere, and deals like the Kampung Baru one are becoming run-of-the-mill.
“Our heritage is being sold, our grandchildren won’t have anything in the future,” Mahathir, PPBM’s chairman, said at the public launch of his new party a fortnight ago.
Najib’s critics claim that some deals, like the 55-billion-ringgit East Coast Rail Link and the purchase of land and energy assets from troubled 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), are to cover for billions allegedly siphoned off from the state investor.
At least US$700 million (Bt24.7 billion) linked to 1MDB was found in Najib’s private accounts, but he denies any wrongdoing, insisting it was a political donation from the Saudi royal family.
With the 1MDB saga failing to capture the imagination of rural Malays, a crucial vote bank, Mahathir has gone further to say that real estate sales to China firms will result in the loss of land – an emotive subject for Malays – and a flood of hundreds of thousands of China nationals living in Malaysia and eventually claiming citizenship.
But fingering the massive $42-billion Forest City project in the Johor Strait has irked the state’s influential Sultan, who is also a part owner of the four-island reclamation that is three times the size of Singapore’s Sentosa. This has left PPBM president Muhyiddin, a potential prime ministerial candidate and Johor native, to take a more nationalistic stance, lest his loyalty to his monarch is questioned.
The large Chinese presence could wipe out opportunities for Malaysian companies, he said in an interview with Sin Chew Daily headlined “China robs rice bowls of locals” last week. Muhyiddin added that PM Najib was “opening the floodgates for the foreign power to influence local political parties”.
The former deputy premier’s less cavalier approach may also have to do with the fact that should he succeed Najib, he would very well still need Chinese money to reinvigorate a slowing economy. The Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) has howled in derision at PPBM’s attacks on foreign direct investment, especially the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), which pointed out that Muhyiddin himself had gone to Beijing to solicit investments when he was still in government.
MCA may see PPBM’s anti-China sentiment as a way to claw back support from Chinese Malaysians who have largely fled to the opposition.
But it would still have to assuage fears from these constituents that they too are being crowded out of an economy that already reserves a share of business for bumiputeras, the term used for Malays and the aboriginal minority.
What’s clear is that both sides of the political divide are stoking ethnocentric fears to sway the rural Malay vote, which is crucial for victory at the polls. And theirs will not just be an appeal to emotions, but an argument rooted in dollars and cents.
 “The next general election is one fought over the soul of the Malays,” says ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute deputy director Ooi Kee Beng. “There is a substantial body of unsure Malay voters, shaken by the cost of living, by Mahathir’s challenge, and by the 1MDB scandal. The question is, can PPBM convince them to desert Umno for the good of the Malay agenda.”