YOUNG voters tend to be anti-establishment but that does not mean they cannot become conservative and support parties such as PAS and Bersatu, an academic said.

Abdul Muqit Muhammad of Universiti Malaya, who conducted a study on “Understanding new voters’ behaviour”, said this was why many young voters voted for Perikatan Nasional (PN) in last year’s general election and the August 12 state polls.

“It is also baseless to say that young voters are more progressive. They can be anti-establishment but that does not mean they are progressive.

“They are anti-establishment but a conservative lot,” Muqit said, adding that the trend was discovered in the general election last November.

Muqit was speaking at a forum organised by Ilham Centre on the August 12 elections in six states.

A survey conducted by Ilham Centre found that young Malay voters had contributed to PN’s huge win in Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu in the polls.

Apart from young voters, army and police personnel and teachers also opted for PN.

In November 2021, Malaysia lowered the voting age to 18 and the automatic voter registration system came into effect.

This brought hopes of a “youth tsunami” that would lead Malaysia away from the racialism of parties such as Umno, towards multiracial parties like PKR. However, the youth also followed previous generations in supporting mono-religious parties like PAS.

A study conducted by Yusof Ishak Institute found that 62% of young voters read political news a few times a week but score themselves lowly on political awareness.

The pollster also concluded that Umno lost the support of Felda settlers and voters in Malay traditional villages, which also saw a swing of votes from Barisan Nasional to PN.

Muqit said youth in Malay-majority areas tended to be more sentimental and were heavily influenced by their parents.

He said young voters were attracted to communal institutions such as Umno.

“Their brand of politics still revolves around Malay populism, which is amplified by narratives, at times cherry-picked, on social media of popular historical events and pseudo-history,” he said.

“And when Umno began to lose its relevance, youth turned to PAS and Bersatu, the two Malay parties in PN.”

On social media trends, Muqit said young voters were much more active on this platform and this was taken advantage of by PAS.

He said PAS’ youth wing had been on TikTok as early as 2016 when the platform was still considered as inappropriate by the party elders due to its content.

“Now TikTok is an effective tool for PN, especially PAS, as it managed to gain many followers through the site,” he said. – August 28, 2023.