Partway into his speech in the Padang Serai constituency in the state of Kedah, Ahmad Zahid pulled out an unexpected card – by addressing the crowd in Mandarin. Well, Zahid speaking Chinese should not be a surprise.

Zahid speaking Chinese

“I am Malay. You are Chinese. I am Malaysian. We are all Malaysians, right?” he said while flashing a gigawatt smile, to cheers from the crowd. PH lost the by-election, but Umno and BN are now sitting firmly in the coalition headed by PM Anwar Ibrahim.

PUTRAJAYA

Not long ago, Umno was haunting Anwar Ibrahim’s PH alliance with accusations of running a clandestine agenda to hand over national power to Malaysia’s minority ethnic Chinese at the expense of the majority Malay majority community. The Malays community did not support PH, but a significant number is still behind BN. That will help balance the situation in Putrajaya.