PRIOR to Dr Mahathir Mohamad taking charge of the Pakatan Harapan opposition coalition, voters in Kampung Tokai, Kedah, admitted to being afraid of the possibility of DAP being in government.

An elderly farmer, who only wanted to be known as Pak Mat, said he and his wife saw that allegations that DAP would rule the government if PH was voted into Putrajaya were false.

“Dr Mahathir said it was impossible for DAP to be in power because their seats were so few. How can they rule the country, since they’ll need more seats?” he asked, when talking to Malaysia Decides.

Pak Mat’s wife, Azizah, said they would vote for PH in this election because they could no longer bear the rising costs of goods, which they blamed on the goods and services tax.

Attacks on DAP have been a long-running rhetoric used by Umno and Barisan Nasional to cow Malay voters into fearing the possibility that a government run by the majority-Chinese party would lead to an erosion in Malay special privileges.

Housewife Hasnah Rahim, 48, who lives on the fringes of Alor Star, said she initially had her doubts about voting for a DAP candidate for the same reasons.

“But now, our lives are so hard. The prices of goods have gone up so much, and they tell us the reason is GST. So I feel we have no choice (but to vote for PH),” she said.

Kedah is among the states seen by analysts to be contributing to the Malay tsunami, as it is home to more than 873,000 Malay voters.

Most of the rural Malay folk interviewed by Malaysia Decides said they no longer bought into fears of the DAP bogeyman perpetuated by BN, saying that GST and the rising costs of goods held greater fear now.

Still, throughout this campaigning period, caretaker prime minister Najib Razak and the government’s party machinery have not been letting up on likening PH to DAP, which BN says is anti-Islam and anti-Malay.

This strategy probably remains in use because it still finds a willing audience in some Malay voters here, who say they will continue to support BN to oppose DAP.

Abdul Rahim, 45, a farmer from Kampung Bagan in Padang Terap, said PH was controlled by DAP, which he called a “communist party”.

“Islam and the Malay race are the most important things which we must protect, and we cannot allow DAP to destroy the sovereignty of our country,” he said.

“Do you want them to belittle Islam? We will be ruled by communists. Do you want the Malays here to be ignored like those in Penang? Even Islam is not respected by them.” – May 8, 2018.