DEMOCRACY cannot just be limited to elections, but to deny the critical importance of elections in the overall democratic exercise is just futile. The call to abstain in elections is a legitimate one. It is one’s democratic right anyway. However, while that choice is legitimate, it translates into the disproportionate empowerment of the ruling Barisan Nasional government.          

Senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore Oh Ei Sun suggested that protest votes merely privileges the establishment. “[By] not voting in a not yet two-party electoral system, they are essentially ensuring the victory by the ruling party, which has more wherewithal to organise mass voter turnouts in their favour.”

Here are several reasons why we must make a choice in this coming election to either vote for Barisan Nasional, Pakatan Harapan or even PAS. Abstaining is equivalent to empowering Barisan Nasional.

The ruling government has a solid indoctrinated voter base

In contrast to the opposition coalition, Barisan Nasional has a strong grip over the mainstream media, education and state apparatus to promote the perverted agendas of Barisan Nasional. Since birth, these agendas have been indoctrinated into our system, from an education curriculum that overly emphasises Umno’s role in liberating Malaysia from the British to state-funded Barisan Nasional engagement programmes that come with goodies and handouts.

It is a known fact that every primetime news channel will focus on shaming and bad mouthing the opposition party while blindly praising the Barisan Nasional government. This power monopoly zombifies the minds of voters in BN’s favour, thus solidifying their voter base, which is often ringfenced by race and religion.

Barisan Nasional’s ability to mobilise voters

While the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) issued a strong statement that travel allowances are considered a form of bribery, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low said otherwise. Stating that, as long as we didn’t make it an obligation for them to vote for Barisan Nasional, it is not a form of bribery. Having a minister issue a statement contrary to the body in charge of supervising corruption in our country is worrying and troublesome. This is also a clear indication that Barisan Nasional has greater incentive and the financial strength to carry out such tactics.

According to personal testimonies by the former Umno chiefs who are now in Bersatu, the ketua bahagian usually vets the people they want to ferry to voting booths. It clearly shows that this is not an open offer to everyone. But ultimately, your abstinence won’t stop Barisan Nasional from ferrying these supporters into the voting booth by using cash handouts disguised as “transportation allowance”. The BN candidates will allocate a large sum of money to get their voters out while the opposition is unable to do so due to financial constraints. Again, the strategy will end in agony.

BN’s well financed party machinery

Not only can BN mobilise voters, they also have a strong machinery behind them to back them up. A strong arm from the federal level to the state level to bahagians up until cawangan; all the levels within Barisan Nasional are well funded.  This gives them ability to recruit and pay workers during an election. These people, in return, are able to spend the time and money to go door to door to spread messages to people out there about Barisan Nasional. This again goes back to point one as it helps in the creation of new indoctrinated fans of Barisan Nasional. It does not stop there; BN also regularly uses federal agencies to achieve their political goals. They’ll get staff from Majlis Amanah Rakyat  (Mara) to Jabatan Kemajuan Masyarakat (Kemas) to go door to door seeking ways to help voters out. Suddenly, government servants and agencies are converted into BN’s election machinery. Not voting for any party here means another 10 years of Najib Razak as our prime minister.

Big turnouts can swing elections

Changes and miracles happen when people go to the ballot box in huge numbers. This can be clearly seen when 58.2% of Americans voted in the 2008 presidential election. A record high since 1972, the outcome of the election led to president Barack Obama being the first African-American president. Meanwhile, the 2010 midterm election, with a turnout of 40.9%, led to Congress being dominated by Republicans, a party with strong conservative roots. This is a clear sign that change can only happen if people go in big numbers to vote for a party.

Even the historic comeback of the Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, was only possible as a quarter million people, a majority of them under the age of 25, registered to vote at the last minute, creating a surprise as early polls showed Theresa May leading by far.

Abstaining is not an effective protest vote in Malaysia

Abstaining from voting can only be an effective tool in countries that either practice minimal voting attendance, like Australia, or countries that include “none of the above” in their ballot box. In those situations, not voting gives a clear indication that they disagree and this grievance will be given attention as there is a strong message behind it. In Malaysia, such a mechanism simply doesn’t apply.

Like it or not, we need to act rationally and within the means of how we can change the outcome of votes. You might think your one vote doesn’t matter in an area that has the incumbent winning by a majority of 13,000, for example. However, if your decision starts becoming a spillover effect, it causes mayhem. A strong show of low voter turnout has never changed the outcome of how the ruling government behaves in Malaysia. It is simply a fruitless exercise.

In conclusion, Malaysians simply needs to go down and vote. Winston Churchill once said:  “Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” We have little choice but we need to make those choices count. Exercise your vote, pick any one of the parties in the election, be that force of change. – September 28, 2017.

* Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman is Bersatu Youth (Armada) chief 

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight.