WITH polling day less than five days away, political parties have yet to explain in detail about their election manifestos and have only relied on bringing up old issues, including political rhetoric, to get voters’ attention, said political observers.

They said politicians should be touching on their election manifesto instead of attacking the personal issues of rival candidates.

They added that young voters, especially first time voters, want to know more about the solution to fix the country’s economy and if the future government can provide job opportunities.

Barisan Nasional last week promised a minimum basic income of RM2,208 for each household and free higher education for the poor while Pakatan Harapan pledged toll-free rides on the North-South Expressway among other vows while Perikatan Nasional said it will create one million new jobs.

Ilham Centre executive director Hisomudin Bakar said politicians regardless of political parties are still in denial and delusional as they continue to harp on old issues.

Voters, according to Hisomudin, want to hear about the solutions to fix the country’s financial woes but politicians are still using political rhetoric in many of their ceramah.

“Using old issues during ceramah is to create hype and get the attention of the people but this is not the main priority, not what voters want.”

“They want to know how the next government will fix the economy but these politicians seem not to understand what voters actually want. They prefer to talk using rhetoric instead of offering solutions,” he said.

He described that at the moment Pakatan Harapan was the only pact brave enough to hold open rallies, while Perikatan Nasional was utilising social media platforms such as TikTok to reach voters.

Barisan Nasional on the other hand opts to hold small scale ceramah in effort to convince their own supporters to go out to vote.

Where are the debates?

Dr Mazlan Ali agreed with Hisomudin that political parties must explain in detail their deals for the voters.

He however added that in order to increase more audience and to get first time voters to vote, each political leader must be brave enough to attend a public debate.

“We need to have a new approach if we want voters to vote. Ceramah, personal attacks and rhetoric are old tactics. Political leaders should debate each other on policies and what they can offer. They shouldn’t be afraid to debate.”

“This is what new voters want. They want to compare and hear the offers of political pacts. At the moment everyone is ‘syok sendiri’ claiming that they can take care of the people but don’t offer real solutions,” said the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia academic.

In the past week, candidates had resorted to personal attacks, and using religion to win over votes.

PAS Sit Youth chief Shahiful Nasir was forced to apologise for claiming that those who vote for BN or PH will “end up in hell”.

Another PAS leader, Razman Zakaria had warned that the PH government under Anwar Ibrahim would promote LGBT and same sex marriage should the coalition win the GE.

He also alleged that if the Malays voted for PH, it would mean they were surrendering the government to DAP.

Okay to recycle issues

Fauzi Abdul Hamid of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) said that there was nothing wrong for political parties to recycle issues such as corruption as the matter was still relevant.

The academic said that corruption was not just an issue for BN but also for PH.

“Corruption is a contemporary issue, it is relevant. 1Malaysia Development Berhad and other graft issues should be highlighted. PH leaders such as Lim Guan Eng too have court cases involving corruption, so it is not just a BN matter.”

“I think Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi shot himself in the foot by backing Najib Razak in his 1MDB trial. The urban and semi urban Malays are against corruption and PH and PN are using this issue to win their votes,” he said.

Fauzi also said that current issues such as the Littoral Combat Ship scandal could be used to convince first time voters to vote for a clean government.

“The number of new voters is big. Not just Undi18 but from the automatic voter registration. These voters are fence sitters who have yet to make up their mind on who to vote for.

“They can be convinced to vote for a clean government that is corruption free. They might attend political ceramah as they want to participate and hear for themselves but it is not a guarantee that they will vote for that particular party.

“They will decide at the last minute who they will choose. However they can be persuaded especially if they are told about the danger of voting for a corrupt government,” he explained. – November 14, 2022.