Some gangs now eyeing opposition and Anwar

Gangs are "opportunistic" in nature and would turn to support the opposition if they felt that the coalition might become the ruling party in the coming general elections, said French researcher Sophie Lemiere.

Lemiere said when she started her research in 2008 on Malaysian gangs, there were really very few groups supporting Pakatan Rakyat or opposition parties.

But in recent months, she had been told by some of her sources who are gang members, that they might support the opposition and its leader Anwar Ibrahim.

"One of the main reasons (that very few gangs supported Pakatan before) is that I sincerely believe that the opposition have much less money than the ruling party," she said at a public talk in USM's School of Humanities on Friday.

"The main objective of gangs is to have access to the system of patronage, resources and money.

"The opposition does not have the same network of patronage," she explained when presenting her paper on 'Gangsters and Masters: Connivance Militancy in Contemporary Malaysia'.

"The opposition does not have the same access to resources. So of course, it is less interesting to the gangs," she added.

The PhD holder was responding to a question about gangs who supported the opposition when she said in her talk that not all gang members backed the ruling party.

In her response, Lemiere (left) reminded that gangs are "opportunist" groups that aim to seize power and money.

So for now they might support Umno because the Malay party is the ruling party for now, she said.

But if gangs felt that the opposition might become the ruling party and hold the "keys of the gold chamber" of Malaysia, they would turn to support the opposition," said Lemiere.

Ideology starting to matter?

However, the scholar was quick to add that if gangs support any party, it is not out of ideology although there might be a few exceptions.

"For example, one of my sources that calls himself Robin Hood Melayu, believes in politics and has a strong ideology.

"He mentioned that he might start to support Anwar (right, also PKR de facto leader and Permatang Pauh MP)," said Lemiere.

"It is something that has started to show recently before this general election (on May 5), a few people (interviewed during the research) told me they supported the opposition," she revealed.

"And if you look at some constituencies in Kuala Lumpur where there had been violence and pressure from gangs (during the elections), then you might find information about gang rivalry between those supportive of Anwar and those supportive of the government," she added.

Lemiere observed that some of the political strategies and the political tricks that are being used in Umno are also being used in the opposition.

She sees this as the school of politics or "way of doing politics" here, although it is old fashioned and completely outdated for politicians to use gangs to achieve their aims.

But, many who are today in the opposition were yesterday in Umno, she observed.

"They have been learning and using the same strategy. It's not like when they cross (from Umno to the opposition) they suddenly change their way of dealing with politics," Lemiere said.

"They might as well use the same kind of strategy, to hire militants, whether they are gangs or something else," she said.

"These strategies are not only of the ruling party, but may be strategies used by many different kinds of politicians," she added.

Fine line between business and ganges

Lemiere then cited the example of the Chinese-based parties in the country, without being specific, saying that they were often, though unsurprisingly, have links to triads.

The difference is that between being a triad member, and a successful businessman with a few links with the underground world to ensure business runs smoothly, she said.

"We are walking on a very, very fine line. We always have to be very careful with what we are saying, assuming. And always give the benefit of the doubt and try to, rather than give names, or denouncing and exposing people, try to understand the dynamics in order to get rid of it at some point," she said.

"But that's your problem as you are the Malaysians and this is your country," added Lemiere, who is currently an associate researcher at Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast-French National Centre for Scientific Research (IRASEC-CNRS), Paris.

Lemiere has just received her PhD from Sciences-Po Paris on ethno-nationalist and Islamic movements in Malaysia, and has spent five years here researching extensively on the links between gangs and political parties.

Her research was based on interviews with gang members, Malay-based groups like Pekida and their relationships with Umno, from 2008 to April this year.

During her research, Lemiere also discovered that gangs had created NGOs like Pekida to support the ruling party and help them preserve an authoritarian state with tough laws.