Friday Jottings: The importance of being periphery flies

Malaysian Reserve

11-05-2025

PURSUANT to last week's jottings, despite Umno and Barisan Nasional successfully defending the Ayer Kuning seat, the coalition and party's stalwart Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan seems affected by the opposition's mock of UMDAP – coined for the Umno and DAP collaboration.
The UMDAP mock had upset Ahmad because, to him, it conjured the idea that Umno was controlled by the DAP and that the DAP dominated the current Government.
Ahmad is yet another Umno leader who had been disturbed by the UMDAP mock for the same reason.
The DAP, however, seems unperturbed by it.
One of DAP's top leaders, Nga Kor Ming, upped the ante on the mock, making it a battle cry during the Ayer Kuning campaign with several Umno youth members doing the chorus.
While Umno interprets the mock as something that hurts their political well-being because it is unacceptable to their members and the bigger body of Malay supporters because it made out that the party is subservient to the DAP and that it is part of a Government dominated by the DAP.
On the flip side, going by Nga's enthusiasm, the DAP thrives on the mock. It is doubtful, given DAP's political prowess, that it is unaware of what bothered Umno and the hurt the UMDAP label impacted the Malay-based party.
Simply put, it can be deduced that what pained Umno, is DAP's gain.
It can then be further deduced that for the DAP, Umno's interpretation of the UMDAP label, suits its political well-being and that its members and supporters are comfortable, if not gleeful, over it.
Ahmad is trying to get Umno branches, which are holding their meetings nationwide, to debunk the narrative that the DAP dominates the Government as well as controlling Umno.
His logic is that the current Government is formed by a coalition of 18 parties and not merely Umno and the DAP.
Ahmad pointed out that the two parties combined would only have a total of 70 parliamentary seats, far from the required 112 simple majority to form the Government.
The is logical and yet, politics is not merely about numbers. In most times, perceptions, history and context play a bigger role in forming public opinion.
In these aspects, Umno and Ahmad have their work cut out for them.
Perceptions that the DAP, given its superior numbers compared with most of the other partners in the coalition, Umno included, is a dominant, if not the dominant, force in the present Government is quite entrenched.
Lest Ahmad forgets that the fall of the first Pakatan Harapan Government in 2020 was due to Umno and other Malay parties involved in the Sheraton Move being unable to accept the DAP in the administration.
Again, lest Ahmad forget, Umno and BN's campaign in the last general election was premised on 'No DAP, No Anwar (Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim)'.
In fact, the 'no DAP' was central in Umno and BN's campaign and the ground for such rejection of the DAP is based on the narrative that it is a chauvinist party out to dismantle the special position and privileges accorded to the Malays and Bumiputras.
It is a narrative that is accepted by Umno members. It is further accepted by the bigger body of Malay/Bumiputera voters and the 15th general election saw the Malay-dominated Perikatan Nasional securing some 60 percent of the Malay/Bumiputra votes while the PH only managed 11 percent, with the rest going to Umno/BN.
In simple maths, almost 90 percent of the Malay/Bumiputra votes rejected the DAP and PH.
So today, Umno/BN has taken its 30 per cent Malay/Bumiputra votes to the PH and DAP, but that too, based on several analyses, is eroding hence the discomfort felt by Ahmad and other Umno leaders despite the win in Ayer Kuning.
The equation is simple. What Umno/BN has brought to the table is some of the Malay/Bumiputra votes that are still with them.
Then, add that with the 11 per cent that PH may still command from the last polls and combined with the still loyal and solid non-Malay votes of the DAP and PH; the collaboration becomes formidable in mixed seats of those with marginal Malay/Bumiputra majority seats.
But most Malays realise that Umno/BN are merely an addendum to the PH coalition apart from the fact that they came together as a post-electoral pact, not much different than how they perceive Malay leaders in the DAP as being tokens, brought in simply to win over the Malay votes.
These narratives were Umno's before the collaboration with DAP and PH was formed, and it is something that the Malay had taken to heart. Given Umno's scandalous and weak leadership, it is difficult for any Malays to believe that they would be able to stand up to the DAP.
Attempts by the likes of its youth chief, Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh, to stand up to what is perceived as insults by the non-Malays, including that from the DAP, had been summarily neutered.
For that matter, Dr Akmal, who earlier had built quite a reputation among the Malays, even those outside of Umno, to be the defender of Malay interest, is now slowly being dismissed as a pestering pest.
Lest Ahmad forgets, he should be reminded of the recent local lore of the fly and the lion, in which Dr Akmal was unceremoniously flattened.
Ironically, it was Nga of the DAP, who swiped the swat.
Shamsul Akmar is an editor at The Malaysian Reserve.