THE unity government will be able to win back the hearts of voters if they successfully tackle cost of living issues, civil society groups and political analysts said.

They believe Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) victories in Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah in the last state elections was due to the religious and racial sentiments they said would not have been effective if the people saw the results of the unity government’s efforts in dealing with the issues.

They said this was why the unity government had conceded much ground to PN even after announcing various allocations and incentives for the poor.

The Consumers’ Association of Kedah said people were easily taken in by racial and religious sentiments because they are affected by the high cost of living.

Its president Mohamad Yusrizal Yusoff said those who are struggling to live tend to reject policies or incentive that are good for them.

“Their income is low and the cost of living is high so the people find it difficult to make ends meet.

“The government really needs to deal with this important issue. When the people are happy and comfortable, they will not care too much about political sentiments,” Yusrizal said.

Before the elections, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced, among other things, additional agricultural aid of RM2 million for farmers in Kedah.

In addition, he also allocated RM8.9 million in rice seed aid and an increase in the Rice Price Subsidy Scheme (SSHP) rate from RM360 to RM500 per metric tonne.

For Kelantan, Anwar announced additional aid of RM500 million to overcome water problems in the state from the existing allocation of RM1 billion previously.

However, the announcements did not translate into a shift in support when Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional each only managed to get one seat in Kelantan.

In Terengganu, the unity government lost badly with PAS making a clean sweep of all 32 seats in the legislative assembly, enabling it to retain the state.

PN also won in Kedah and formed the state government.

Yusrizal said the scourge of racial and religious sentiments overshadowed all incentives and aid announced by the prime minister.

He said in the three PN states, voters were already fed with the notion that it is the government’s responsibility to give aid to the people.

“The sentiments played up in Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu with most of the Malay voters was that the aid given is government’s money.”

Yusrizal said the increase in the rate of the SSHP scheme for rice farmers is still an issue.

This, he said, was because some parties will still try to take advantage by raising other prices such as fertilisers and weed killers.

“In the end the situation will be the same. The rice subsidy will go up but other goods will also become more costly. There is no change for them,” he said.

Universiti Malaya political analyst Awang Azman Awang Pawi also said many allocations and announcements have been made but the people have yet to feel the impact.

To solve the problem, he said, the unity government needs to focus on opening up the minds of the people who are exposed to shallow party politics.

“Even if the people got the aid, they believe it was because of the state government’s and their parties’ effort to get the federal government to give them the aid.

“But, if they are continuously reminded that the aid is from the federal government and that their socio-economic status is changing, then that sentiment (of not supporting unity government) will wane,” he said.

Awang Azman said the government should also continue with their existing policies and be more modern and progressive.

He also said the government needs to be serious about implementing the concept of real social justice and not just populist policies.

“When the people are in a poor economic state, their nature is to protest because they feel they are in a difficult position.

“They protest in different ways. Not choosing the unity government is one way to protest. It doesn’t mean they don’t support 100%. They just want the government to pay attention to them.” – August 24, 2023.