The result of Malaysia's 13th general election poses more questions than it answers. Yes, the National Front coalition has won, although their margin of victory is smaller than the "political tsunami" of 2008. This cannot be a good sign for the incumbent Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Perhaps of greater significance is the fact that the National Front only secured about 47 percent of the popular vote, while the opposition People's Alliance managed to win 51 percent. Najib called for a strong personal mandate, but this was not heeded by the Malaysian people. There were other more disconcerting trends. An urban-rural divide could quite easily be discerned in voting trends. In most instances in urban areas, the People's Alliance either retained or improved on its performance.

Where the National Front scored was in the rural areas, especially the 70-odd FELDA seats, referring to parliamentary seats in rural constituencies under the Federal Land Development Authority which leases out land to settlers, and which are predominantly ethnic Malay majorities.

This leads to a second disconcerting trend, the apparent ethnic polarization of the vote. The National Front's hemorrhaging of ethnic Chinese votes continues; indeed it intensifies.

The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the second largest party in the ruling coalition after the United Malays national Organisation (UNMO) and in possession of economic assets and strong links with business, lost significant political capital. By winning a mere handful of seats, the MCA has been relegated to the status of a "minor party" in the coalition. This will have huge ramifications. 

The party leadership promised to decline any offers of government positions if it did worse than in 2008, when it won 15 seats. This promise was made in a desperate attempt to sway Chinese voters, for whom the MCA's only message was that a vote for the opposition meant surrendering Chinese interests to Islamism. 

If this was a tactic to scare Chinese into supporting them, it failed miserably. In the event, the party is not represented in the new cabinet, and the prime minister cannot rely on his main non-Malay partner in the National Front for support in policy-making.

The MCA's absence from the upper echelon of Malaysian politics will also have implications for Malaysia's political economy. Given the traditionally close ties between business and politics in Malaysia, the MCA's lack of serious political capital will mean that it can no longer play the role of interlocutor between Chinese business enterprises and the Malay-dominated political establishment as effectively as it used to. But was this truly a "Chinese tsunami," as Najib called it in his post-election interview?

At one level, the statistics speak for themselves. Malaysia's Chinese community voted en masse for the opposition. Scratch beneath this surface however, and the picture is far more complex. Given that there are 150 Malay and about 45 Chinese majority parliamentary seats in Malaysia, it is too simplistic to calculate that the election result was caused by the Chinese swing.

There was more at play than that. Specifically, the National Front also lost a large percentage of urban Malay votes, certainly more than they have been accustomed to losing. But it's regrettable that politicians from the National Front appear intent on casting the result in a polarized racial light.

This has not been helped by stories in the UMNO-controlled Malay media and statements by senior Malay politicians accusing the Chinese of ingratitude. 

These elements have resorted to sowing a climate of fear particularly in rural areas, where the campaign narrative was basically that a vote for the opposition meant a dilution of Malay primacy in Malaysia.

This trend, fed by politically expedient discourse on the part of National Front candidates, has resulted in essentially a Malay dominant government and an ethnic Chinese opposition. The election result also raises uncertainties about the future of Najib himself. Speculation was already rife that any failure to improve on the 140 seats he inherited from his predecessor when he took office in 2009 will result in a challenge.

He has only secured 133 seats. Developments between now and the UMNO general assembly later in the year will be watched closely for signs of movement by potential challengers. To be sure, the dust hasn't yet settled. Early indications are that the election result portends greater challenges ahead for the country. The next five years are going to be a rough ride for Malaysia.

The author is associate dean and professor of comparative and international politics at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn