opinion According to a report published in the front page of the MCA-owned Nanyang Siang Pau Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad met leaders of seven Chinese associations in Putrajaya yesterday 'to exchange views on the Chinese community, Chinese education and other national issues'.

It was reported that the Barisan Nasional chairman and Umno president told the Chinese leaders that 'Chinese associations should not be 'blindly' led by the opposition on issues concerning Chinese education'.

The prime minister was also reported to have blamed 'some middle and low-ranking government officers' for the many problems faced by the Chinese community.

He was also reported to have said defensively that the BN government was not 'anti-Chinese education'.

From the timing of the meeting and the issues discussed, it is rather clear that rightly or wrongly, Dr Mahathir and BN are gravely concerned with Chinese votes during the Indera Kayangan by-election in Perlis on Saturday.

It is almost certain that Chinese leaders were summoned to meet the premier and were then asked to convey his views through the MCA-controlled Nanyang Siang Pau in order to convince Indera Kayangan's Chinese voters.

Malay and Chinese voters in Indera Kayangan stand at 47.4 percent and 46.4 percent respectively while Indians and others make up the balance.

With the Malay/Muslim votes likely to be divided in equal strength between the ruling BN and opposition Barisan Alternatif, it is widely believed that Chinese votes will play a critical and balancing role.

Larger issues

The by-election is seeing a straight fight between MCA's former headmistress Oui Ah Lan, 58, and Keadilan's retired teacher Khoo Yang Chong, 60. The latter is also a commissioner for oaths, leader of the local Cantonese Association as well as a four-term president of the Buddhist Society of Perlis.

Besides being a former teacher of some 30 years, his tenures as leader of the Cantonese Association and Buddhist Society seem to have drastically neutralised the impact of the 'Islamic state', 'anti-terrorism' and 'Taliban' issues on the political psyche of the Chinese at grassroots level.

With the personalities, socio-cultural and religious backgrounds of the opposing candidates equalised, it is expected that larger national issues, such as Chinese education, will tilt the tactical balance in the by-election and possibly even the strategic balance in the next general elections.

Already, groups of Chinese educationists and those opposed to MCA's takeover of the Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press dailies from all over the country have gone to Indera Kayangan to air their grievances and advance their cause.

A Sin Chew Jit Poh report on Sunday said the popular vice-president of the United Chinese School Teachers' Associations of Malaysia, Loot Ting Yu, 72, has already been speaking in his 'personal capacity as a Malaysian citizen and voter' on the Keadilan platform.

Popularly known by opposition supporters during the Lunas by-election in 1999 as Cikgu Loot, this powerful Chinese orator is rightfully feared by the MCA as he was instrumental in swaying the mood and sentiment of the semi-rural Chinese voters in Lunas where Keadilan won.

Keadilan's Chinese campaign has also been strengthened by experienced former DAP leaders including ex-members of parliament Gooi Hock Seng, Sim Kwang Yang and Foo Piow Kok, and ex-state assemblymen Lai Teo Kwan, who is a well known in the Chinese-speaking community as a political cartoonist.

Open apology

Over the last three years, Keadilan has recruited a pool of multilingual young Chinese leaders such as Australian-trained lawyer Cheah Kah Peng, medical specialist Dr Lee Boon Chai, businessman Ng Lum Yong and Taiwanese graduates Low Chee Cheong and Diong Chi Tzuoh.

Although relatively unknown in the mainstream media which has been dominated by the BN and some urban-based opposition figures, these new Chinese ground activists of Keadilan helped a great deal in the swinging of Chinese votes towards the opposition in by-elections like Teluk Gemang and Lunas.

Perhaps that is why Dr Mahathir Mohamad met the seven Chinese community leaders who are popularly perceived to be pro-government and pro-MCA. The Umno president seems not to have forgotten Lunas and his own defeat in Kota Setar in 1969 when the Chinese voted for PAS en masse 'to teach the ultra-Malay extremist a lesson'.

Many Chinese, on their part, have also certainly not forgotten the PM's 2000 National Day message in which he likened the Chinese umbrella organisation Suqui to 'communists' and 'Al Ma'unah terrorist'.

For this, and the threat by Umno Youth 'to raze the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall to the ground', many want the PM to offer an open apology to the community as a whole.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia. Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.