Pakatan Harapan is banking on its chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Bersatu to upstage Umno in its traditional strongholds in the coming general election, hoping that he will generate a “Malay tsunami” that would alter the six-decade-old political status quo.

However, former MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek is pessimistic that the man with whom he fought alongside in five general elections will be able to pull this off.

According to Chua, the former prime minister’s impact would be limited to Malay voters in urban constituencies, but not those in the rural areas.

“No other party has taken care of the Malays like Umno has. They (Malay voters in rural constituencies) fear change,” the former MCA president told Malaysiakini...