KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 ― DAP’s fielding of a Malay woman in the Teluk Intan constituency traditionally contested by Chinese faces has exposed the influence of race in politics that continues to see voters preferring to support candidates of their own community.

While this may be down to the “racial cocoons” increasingly forming around Malaysia’s communities and which accentuate the differences in culture, language and religion, political analysts believe the entrenchment of race-based programmes by the government have exacerbated the issue.

“Official policies ― the NEP, educational, religious ― are also often the source of racial tension and misunderstanding instead of helping the different races to transcend their differences,”  Dr Lim Teck Ghee, Centre for Policy Initiatives director, told The Malay Mail Online.

“Politicians and the media are also key players in whipping up or dampening racist sentiments,” he said via e-mail.

The New Economic Policy (NEP) is the most widely known of Malaysia’s race-based policies. The social engineering scheme was introduced to address the inter-racial economic inequality blamed for the race riots of 1969 and created a system of race-based preferential treatment in jobs, housing and access to government funding.

Although officially defunct, the NEP lives on in various policies since it ended officially in 1990 and continues to be a source of discontent among the non-Bumiputera who are not privy to its benefits.

Director of independent pollster Merdeka Center Ibrahim Suffian echoed Lim’s sentiment and said race remains an important political identifier, adding that it is often the most common predictor for political choices.

“What we will probably see in this by-election is likely some ethnic Chinese voters will swing to BN from the DAP candidate, but the vast majority will continue to support DAP,” Ibrahim said.

But both Lim and Ibrahim noted that this emphasis on race was slowly dissipating.

Lim said urban voters have become more sophisticated and do not see racial identity as the main reason to vote for or against a candidate, adding that discerning voters were more concerned about a candidate’s ability to perform.

The party itself is also becoming a bigger consideration, Ibrahim explained.

“While they may not be entirely happy with the choice of candidate, they are not just voting for the candidate but for the party.

“You have a choice of whether you vote for a party that has a track record that speaks out for the community and issues or their opponents [and] most people would go for quality over ethnicity,” he said.

In a bid to shed its image as a predominantly-Chinese party, DAP picked Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, a young Malay woman, as its candidate for the May 25 by-election in Teluk Intan, a Chinese-majority constituency.

Dyana, 26, was formerly the political aide of DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang.

Dr Jeneri Amir, a political analyst with Universiti Malaysia Sarawak said DAP made a strategic choice in Dyana.

“Form the way I see it, what better way to do it then to place a Malay candidate in Chinese majority area?” Jeneri said

He also said it was DAP’s best chance to project itself as multiracial and dispel its image as a Chinese-dominated party, on which Umno was capitalising.

“The next move would be have more Malays in its CEC and more Malay candidates in GE14,” he said.

Dyana will face Gerakan president Datuk Mah Siew Keong in a straight fight for Teluk Intan.

Mah won the Teluk Intan seat in 1999 and 2004, but lost to DAP’s M. Manogaran in 2008 with a 1,470-vote majority.

DAP’s Seah Leong Peng had defeated Mah in 2013 with a 7,313 majority before succumbing to advanced bladder cancer on May 1, this year.

The voter base in Teluk Intan is 42 per cent Chinese, 38 per cent Malay and 19 per cent Indian, making a total of 60,349 registered voters.