Umno Stokes Racial Fires to Regain Lost Ground

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KUALA LUMPUR - Race relations here, unsteady even in the best of times, are worsening with the ruling Umno party ratcheting up racial and religious issues to maintain its influence over majority Malays, who make up some 60 percent of the population of 27 million. Since the party's staggering defeat in the 2008 elections, some Umno leaders have gone on a warpath, raising sensitive racial and religious issues to win over Malay loyalties.

Critics, for instance, have accused the Umno-owned mass-circulation newspaper, Utusan Malaysia, of stoking the fires of racism and religious animosities through its sometimes inflammatory reporting.

The party's exclusive Malay-only composition has had a grip on power since 1957, when the country achieved its independence. The Umno-led Barisan Nasional coalition suffered its worst-ever defeat in the 2008 polls, losing five state governments and two-third majority of seats in Parliament to a resurgent three-party Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition led by the charismatic Anwar Ibrahim, a former Umno deputy president and now leader of the opposition.

The Umno losses were made possible by a combination of minority Chinese and Indian voters and urban Malay poor voting for the opposition.

Urban Malays, alienated by poverty, low income and a constant struggle to survive in crowded low-cost government housing schemes, had discarded long-standing racial, religious and cultural ties with Umno by voting for Pakatan Rakyat (People's Pact/People's Alliance). - + selanjutnya

Umno Stokes Racial Fires to Regain Lost Ground