The beauty of democracy, in the midst of the pandemic, is that you see the brave and the courageous people coming out.
Based on the evidence.provided by the Electoral Commission, most of the 63 per cent of the people, who actually showed up to cast the ballots were in the fifth and stream of the voters. This implies the senior citizens in Malacca, often considered the “Red Neck of the Malay Area,” in that this is a state that believes in preserving Malay power and structure, appear to want Malacca back.
That is fine. One should not be disrespectful to the elders who braved their lives to ensure a better future of the next generation. So, they do deserve a standing ovation.
However, while the media portrayed Malacca as a “wipe out” of Pakatan Harapan, the fact is the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Amanah did a total of 5 seats too: 4 to DAP and one to the former Chief Minister, Adlin Zahari.
As for Perikatan National, the government, they could only win 2 seats. This implies that senior citizens did not appreciate the contributions of ex Prime Mahathir Mohammad, the founder of Bersatu, that formed the spear of PM.
Nor do they appreciate the prior and current leadership of former Prime Minister Mahiaddin Yassin between March 2021 to August 2020, nor the current one by PM Ismail Sabri. My Keluarga, the creed of the government, does not seem to resonate with them.
Granted that this is a state election, where 4 State Assemblymen, suddenly bolted to express their support of Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim, with his party winning none of the seats, it does appear that senior voters were not amused by this theatric.
That is an important lesson with which PKR must internalize, and seek damage control in light of the fact that it is the two weaker coalition partners, namely DAP and Amanah, that made it into the Malacca state legislature.
Attempts to link BN to the prior request of ex Prime Minister Najib Razak to ask the government of PM Ismail Sabri for RM 100 million, which was approved, despite the previous conviction of Najib Razak, seems to have fallen on death ears.
Since the revelation came from former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, whose legacy now lies in latter, it would mean that the old trick of Mahathir of calling Najib a “thief” and “kleptocrat” has failed on two grounds.
One Maharhir and PN do not enjoy ant moral standing at all. With the leak of the Pandora Papers, of which his family seems to have amassed tens of billions in Great British Pounds too, with Daim Zainuddin a close second and altogether 9 UMNO MPs’ names leaked in the paper, the Senior Generation of the voters seemed more determined to punish the current government first.
As for the youth within the range of 18 and 40, this State Election held on a Sunday did not matter to them one bit. Their apathy is disconcerting not because of their fear of COVID-19 but 7 out of 10 of them seemed to want to leave Malaysia for the greener postures abroad.
Two, the tenure of PM Sabri is too soon to deliver resonate with the Malacca. In voting, Barisan National into the electoral fray, to the senior generation, it seems to be better the “devil one knows, than one doesn’t.”
1As the President of Amanah Mohammad Sabu once said. “if the voters dont like us, you can always kicked us out.” Since Malacca was just as badly affected by Covid 19 as the rest of the country, indeed the world, the senior generation of the voters has chosen to momentarily kicked them out.
Meanwhile, PAS did not make any head way at all. What the senior generation had wanted was more focus on getting the economy of Malacca back on track. Granted that Azmin Ali and Zuraidah Kamaruddin were all in the Supreme Council of Bersatu, an indictment of PN is a total condemnation of the government and PAS.
Did Anwar Ibrahim lose his voters base with the Malays ? No. In all the seats which PKR took on against Barisan National and Perikatan National, all PKR candidates did register thousands of votes only to lack few hundred votes to beat their opponents.
Meanwhile, the voters in Sarawak next month, has to be a must win for PM Ismail Sabri and ex PM Mahiaddin, of which the latter seems oblivious to the fact that is is clearly a strategic liability to him and his camp. Indeed, PM Ismail Sabri went so far as to plaster the face of ex PM Mahiaddin Yassin in all the election posters.
16. Given all the polling research of entities such as Ilham Center of Electoral Research, to mention but q few, that PN stands a decent chance of winning, they have some serious answering to do as to why they got the results were so skewed.
As for Pakatan Harapan, up to 70 per cent of the netizens—-some 12, hours just before the state election was about to begin on November 20—-overwhelmingly clicked in support of them, the sentiment to resurrect the glory days of defeating BN and PN was clearly there.
Three are people contemptuous of the Sheraton Move too. But between Sheraton Move perpetrated by PN and 1MDB and a smorgasbord of CBT, the younger generation took to making the decision in the real General Election 15, not a sideshow like Malacca.
The sentiments of the younger generation do want change rather than everything of the same. But reformasi does not mean tackling corruption only. Rather how would their lot be improved ?
These would be the key question of the Sarawak Election: Show me the jobs ! Where are the jobs ? The triumph of BN was a victory suppressing the youth youths, which is why BN won on the basis of lulling the older generation that a return to the fold of BN can indeed trigger this possibility.
Not necessarily through ex PM Najib but seemingly clean politicians like Negeri Sembilan State Assembly man cum Deputy President of Umno Mohammad Hassan, which ironically, Zahid and Najib from the same party want to contain.
As for the question is Anwar Ibrahim’s career has met his Waterloo in Malacca ? Not yet.
First, he has to engage Mohamad Hassan, well like by Amanah and potentially DAP too. This state election, in a state that led to the colonization of the Malays hinterland from 1511 until 1957, that spawned the Sultanate of Johor, has moved on but cannot move up.
PKR has to be a party that cannot win on sheer cannibalization of the Malay constituciens in 22 out of the 28 seats, which they lost on a sliver. But truly comprehensive job and re-skiling schemes.
What the younger people want are jobs, education support, and everything prosaic that than makes for a stable country, and ideally, feely available lateral flow Covid-19 self testing kits by the galore.
If not Malaccans will try their by either voting with their feet to find some jobs in urban centers such as Kuala Lumpur or better yet blue collar and workers in Singapore.
It matters that South Korea and Japan are two countries that the younger generation like. These two countries at least have some 14 employment sectors, especially Japan, that are in serious shortage of labors and nurses.