Fight for the Chinese votes

After the recent Sarawak state election revealed that Barisan Nasional has lost the Chinese votes, the battle is now on to woo the Chinese.


The worry is that whatever that happened in Sarawak may happen in the entire nation when the general election is held.


If that happens, then MCA will become the next SUPP. Already licking its wounds after the bashing given to it in the 2008 general election, MCA has - led by its new president - tried to woo back the Chinese voters.


Now it has warned that if it gets a worse bashing in the next general election, it will have to reconsider its role in the ruling coalition.


In the meantime, Umno seems exasperated by the Chinese who are seen from their perspective to have 'betrayed' the ruling coalition by voting against them.


The Malay politicians and Malay newspapers like the Umno-controlled Utusan Malaysia are hitting out at the MCA and the Chinese, and even DAP, the party that thrashed SUPP in Sarawak.


Such no-holds-barred quarrelling among members of the ruling coalition will only serve to hammer the wedges deeper into the fault lines within the coalition - to the advantage of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat.


Now, it's a case of Pakatan Rakyat sitting back and watching as Barisan Nasional seems to be in the early stage of implosion. If the quarrels between MCA and Umno are not controlled, then the chasm between the two founding members of the coalition will become deeper and the wounds may not heal properly before the next general election.