Urban Malays afraid to criticise BN, says paper

Updated 6 years ago · Published on 22 Feb 2018 10:46AM · 6 Comments

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan says among urban Malay voters, identity politics is still a major factor influencing how they vote. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, February 22, 2018.

BREAD-AND-BUTTER issues top of the list of grievances for urban Malays, while governance and corruption are less important to most of them, said a Straits Times columnist.

“Governance issues are more frequently flagged by voters who are financially better off,” said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, chief executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs.

“The rest of the group gave more importance to bread-and-butter issues, such as the increasing cost of daily household items and the fluctuation in petrol prices.”

Wan Saiful, who is also a visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said the angst over economic issues led many middle-class urban Malay voters to feel that they had been neglected by the government, as they do not qualify for government aid programmes for the bottom 40% (B40) of low-income Malays.

“Many urban Malays belong in the middle 40% (M40) group. They are not wealthy enough to pay for items and services that the top 20% can afford,” he said, relating his findings from interviews and focus-group discussions with urban Malay voters.

“Unlike the B40, these M40 Malays receive much less government assistance. In fact, they feel that their economic ‘rights’ as ethnic Malays are gradually being eroded as a result of this shift in policy, making them feel the cost pressure even more.”

He said Malays were also worried that if Pakatan Harapan won the 14th general election, it would set the stage for DAP to “further chip away existing Malay privileges”.

“I think it is fair to say that among urban Malay voters, identity politics is still a major factor influencing how they vote.

“Although they are clearly concerned about the economy, and some are longing for better governance, they continue to be fixated on identity politics.”

He said all this meant that PH faced many obstacles in securing the Malay vote.

“To gain the upper hand, all Umno and Barisan Nasional need to do is stoke racial insecurity among these voters. They don’t have to invest too much in the finer points of policy.

“PH has so far refused to exploit ethnic sentiments for short-term political gains, preferring to champion an agenda based on good governance.

“But, this principled approach creates a problem for them, as Umno and BN have no qualms exploiting and propagating ethnic insecurity.”

The researcher said his qualitative discussions with voters found that urban Malays were uncomfortable criticising the government, and this might mean some surveys showing that they backed Umno and BN were inaccurate.

He said respondents in opinion polls often had to answer questions quickly and did not have the time to become comfortable with their interviewers.

Wan Saiful said he conducted a series of interviews and focus-group discussions with urban Malay voters to better understand what the voting bloc thought of the ruling coalition and its rivals.

He said he focused his study in Johor and Kedah – states that the opposition coalition aims to capture in GE14.

He said respondents, at the start of almost all of the interviews, shied away from criticising Umno and BN.

“But as soon as they became more comfortable with the discussion, they opened up.

“Once that stage was reached, it became obvious that not all are happy with the situation in Malaysia today, and their voting intentions are not yet settled.”

He said in-depth interviews showed a more nuanced position of this bloc of voters. – February 22, 2018.

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Comments

  • The most important thing to realize is that we are responsible for the government that we chose to vote into power. We need to do it wisely

    Posted 6 years ago by Kenny Chong · Reply

  • The Author above is spot-on. Why rock the boat when you have a government (a corrupt government) that robs another race to your advantage. A nation that survive on a crutch will be left behind. Just compare us with Singapore. Thousands of Malaysian have to cross Singapore to cari makan. In the near future - our wife and daughter will have to cross to Indonesia as maid and GRO (Guest Relation Officer)

    Posted 6 years ago by Chris Ng · Reply

  • For now they can still be dumb . When the going gets tough then they will feel the pinch. Slowly , oiled subsidies ends, govt bottle feed ends, value of our money declines, inflation comes, birth rate up etc. They will be heading for the cliff.

    Posted 6 years ago by Peter Teng · Reply

  • It is clear that Malays can be very selfish and think of their own parochial interests instead of the interests of the nation. There is very little hope for this country if this is true.

    Posted 6 years ago by Mark G · Reply

  • A lot of urban Malays work at places that either has the government as a client or is part of the government. Of course they would be careful not to overtly criticise the government. But they too are the best ones to know what's right and wrong and I believe they do know. Just that they are the silent majority who will only make their voices heard in an election.

    Posted 6 years ago by Quigon Bond · Reply

  • If you think about it, it makes no sense. Its the financially less well off that corruption and abuse matters more..Its real money taken from them that matters to them. Whereas the more well off, it affects them less.

    Posted 6 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply