SINGAPORE -- The stakes are high for Malaysia's leading party and its archrival when they meet Saturday in a crucial by-election whose outcome will be decided by the Chinese minority holding the balance of power.

The United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and the theocratic Islamic Party (PAS) will trade blows in a straight fight supported by their respective Chinese allies, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP). Their bruising contest will take place in the constituency of Sanggang, a sprawling cluster of villages and small towns right in the rural heartland of the state of Pahang.

Sanggang is located about 140 km to the east of the bustling Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur and 130 km west of the Pahang capital of Kuantan. For UMNO, victory at Sanggang would not only be an endorsement of the policies the party as leader of the ruling National Front (NF) coalition espoused in the Nov. 29 general election; it will also reaffirm the leadership of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his deputy Abdullah Badawi, both of whom have been returned unopposed as party president and deputy president respectively for the coming UMNO polls in mid-May.