By Niza Shimi
As expected, all political parties vying for votes in Malaysia’s 15th general elections (GE15) are amping up their efforts to lure Malay voters. With an increasingly crowded field as new political parties have joined the fray; will Malay voters get confused? Can Malays trust multiracial parties?
Gone are the days when most take GEs as a walkover for Barisan Nasional (BN) and its power-sharing formula with United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), among others.
Ever since the fall of BN in the aftermath of GE14 in 2018, Malaysians have been wondering what is next. The COVID-19 pandemic that affected the entire planet could have been an unplanned breather as we assessed the political scenario after the fall of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in 2020.
What are the chances for the Democratic Action Party (DAP) to win more seats in GE15? Free Malaysia Today (FMT) published an article on October 8, 2022, that offered interesting analyses. FMT writer K Parkaran wrote DAP is expected to find the going tough in GE15.
He wrote on the views of political analysts such as James Chin of the University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute who said DAP had never been able to shed its negative image among the rural Malays, who decide in at least 40% of the 222 parliamentary contests.
Chin urged the party to field more Malay candidates in the Chinese majority or DAP strongholds to increase the number of its Malay YBs (Yang Berhormat title for Members of Parliament). “This is the only sure way of showing it is sincere in its claim that it is building to be truly multiracial,” he added.
FMT wrote that Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara was of the view that DAP benefited from Malay votes to some extent in the last general election because PH had Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Muhyiddin Yassin campaigning for it.
He added that now that they (Mahathir and Muhyiddin) were in different camps, it will be hard for DAP to attract Malay votes.
Will fielding Malay candidates put DAP in a dilemma? Will courting Malay votes by increasing the number of Malay candidates be at the risk of losing the support of their base voters, the Chinese? Will Chinese voters turn to the MCA in GE15?
Party secretary-general Anthony Loke was reported by FMT on October 9, 2022 as saying that the party had yet to determine the percentage of Malay candidates to be fielded as the number of seats negotiations was ongoing.
Loke said: “We must remember that DAP is a multiracial party. Therefore, it is not necessary to only field Chinese candidates to serve Chinese majority seats since both Chinese and Indian leaders can serve Malay-majority seats.”
Interestingly, the next day DAP central executive committee member Syahredzan Johan was reported by Malay Mail as giving assurance that, although the party had struggled with a perception issue regarding its image, the decision to field more Malay candidates was not “a matter of rebranding per se, but a matter of showing our sincerity in working for all Malaysians.”
Can DAP, a multiracial party since its inception in 1965, attract more non-Chinese votes?
There are other multiracial parties these days, such as coalition partner Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). Former coalition partner Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) has evolved from a Pribumi (indigenous)-based party into a multiracial party (The Star August 23, 2020). The new party Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) also claims to be multiracial.
It will be interesting to find out if Malaysians prefer race-based or multiracial political parties. Considering that the DAP has existed since 1965 and still suffers from the lack of Malay interest, will other multiracial parties suffer the same fate? Stay tuned to GE15.
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