ANALYSIS, June 1 — It was billed as a contest between a political veteran and rookie, but the insidious message in Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong’s victory in Teluk Intan over DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, a Malay woman, is that racism was at the heart of the by-election.

Conversations with the middle-aged Chinese here reveal the deep-seated distrust they have towards the Malays, even one fielded by the DAP, and the sense of injustice they feel at how the dominant community is given “special treatment”.

Still, the phenomenon appeared confined to the older generation, with the youth more accepting towards the idea of breaking free of the yoke of communal politics.

Analysts and the media criticised Dyana Sofya for a vague and boring manifesto, which harped on the rising cost of living and empowering women, with no real goals or specific targets.

Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Mah was instead far more specific in his promises for development, even going as far as pledging a Unesco heritage listing for the Leaning Tower and a new university.

But the reality is that voters do not really care about manifestos.

Hopefully, that will change soon in the future, after a change of government that will force both sides to come out with specific policies and manifestos.

For now though, the voters in Teluk Intan only cared about race and Mah’s promise of development.

Dyana Sofya was meant to signify the breaking of race-based politics. Nothing more. Hence her empty manifesto and vague, unexciting speeches that hammered constantly against communalism.

The 26-year-old’s tightly controlled media interviews and press conferences did not matter, either. At the end of the day, Dyana Sofya was just a blank (albeit attractive) template to try and prove that Malaysians can vote across race.

The DAP would likely have retained the federal seat if they had fielded local boy Hew Kuan Yau, or “Superman”, as he’s fondly known here.

“Superman”, a popular speaker, would have stood on even ground with 53-year-old Mah.

The DAP might have won maybe even with an Indian candidate because the Indians vote based on skin colour, too.

But the DAP went with a Malay.

From winning a majority of over 7,000 votes in Election 2013 — Malaysia’s most heated general election that saw a historic 80 per cent voter turnout in Teluk Intan — the DAP lost the by-election by just 238 votes on the back of a poor voter turnout of just 66.7 per cent.

The Chinese community that was initially thought to be the bedrock of votes for the DAP also swung hard away from the party, with support dropping 15 percentage points from the 85 per cent during Election 2013.

Most of the largely pro-opposition outstation voters — an estimated 6,000 — were also not moved to return to cast their ballots in an election that would not have resulted in a change of government.

We still have a long way to go before this nation can heal its wounds from decades of race politics.

As one Chinese woman told me right at the start of the campaign, she felt “very angry” that the authorities would let off Malay traders, but not the Chinese, or even when robbers would steal from the Chinese, but leave the Malays alone.

In the Teluk Intan by-election, this anger against the Malays was more real than their anger against BN.