THE bad news for Prime Minister Najib Razak is that quite a number of Malaysians are angry with him and his administration. Besides the usual pro-opposition crowd, the birth of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad reflects that many Malays are also upset with his Umno-Barisan Nasional.

The 2013 general election results showed that 52% of voters chose the opposition. It was BN’s gerrymandering that allowed the ruling coalition to maintain its power with 51% of the seats.

For the opposition Pakatan Harapan, the hope is to maintain the popular votes of 2013 and to add the new angry Malay votes against Najib. What could go wrong? Najib is still having problems with issues like the 1MDB mega scandal, mismanagement, abuse of power, and creeping Islamism, among other things.

Everything looks fine for the opposition. There’s even talk about the “Malay tsunami” to finally oust BN.

However there’s a feeling of something amiss. Despite the large crowd seen at most Pakatan Harapan events, be it with the presence of Dr Mahathir or Lim Kit Siang, there’s a small voice here and there saying something else.

It seems that some segments of the population are talking about abstaining from voting. Some young people I talked to recently said BN and Harapan were the same, spouting similar promises about development and growth while continuing to attack each other.

This is actually good news for Najib. Although it may not be necessarily 100% true, those who plan to abstain from voting were probably never going to vote for BN anyway. It will be a loss for Pakatan Harapan.

For Najib, all he needs to do to ensure he maintains the minimum GE13 results, i.e. to retain the 51% seats even if it means losing the popular vote.

For PH, there’s a more serious problem. Many of those young voters and the middle-class electorates are in their strongholds of Penang and Selangor. Many urban constituencies will be seriously affected if pro-opposition voters decided to stay away from GE14.

Some of the young voters informed me that they understood the 1MDB scandal and the impact of the GST but they wanted to know more about what PH is offering about jobs – type of work, qualifications, expected salaries, advancement opportunities, other perks, etc.

The more middle-class youth and the non-Malays are upset that both BN and PH politicians are afraid to address the problem of creeping Islamism. Some cited the segregated Muslim-only laundrette in Johor as the recent case example while others reminded me of the never-ending situations involving dogs, pigs and other non-halal matters.

The situation however is not easy to articulate. Despite being kleptocratic and clumsy at times, the Najib administration’s politicisation of Islam seems to be tolerated by Muslims in general.

Yet, in all probability, these same Muslims may not vote for BN. These Muslims believe in the superiority of their religion but would reject BN in the coming elections.

Many of them are probably opposition supporters, and even some fence-sitters. So all is not lost for Harapan.

For those who don’t want to vote, I guess we have to respect their right. Perhaps they want to do it as a form of protest; perhaps it’s their moral choice. Whether their reasons are logical or practical, hopefully they are aware of all the facts.

When voter turnout was 85% in 2013, BN lost the popular votes for the first time ever. When it was 76% turnout in 2008, BN lost its two-thirds majority in the Parliament. But for the past 30 years, whenever voter turnout was less than 72%, BN won by two-thirds majority.

We can only hope that those who want to stay away from GE14 would change their mind to consider giving PH the final chance. Don’t succumb to voter fatigue yet, unless we prefer Najib and Umno to hold on to power for another term, or two, or perhaps three.

There’s a reminder to some of us: bad politicians are elected by good people who don’t vote.

At the same time, respect the choice of young people. Here’s a reminder for all of us: Don’t say “no”, “don’t” or “you can’t” to young voters. They might sulk, shut down or worse, refuse to vote. – September 29, 2017. 

* Wan Hamidi Hamid is a veteran journalist with a deep love and knowledge of rock music

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.