By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 — The next general election will still be won or lost on the economy as both Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders believe that sound economic reform policies will effectively garner maximum voter support.

Leaders from both sides of the political divide have agreed that while Bersih’s electoral reform demands are important and should be addressed, the Najib administration would still be able to ward off criticisms and win back support if it focused on reforming and addressing economic issues, specifically rising inflation and commodity prices.

The BN government’s image has taken a severe beating following the July 9 rally where tens of thousands poured into the city, resulting in nearly 1,700 arrests, scores injured and the death of a PKR division leader’s husband. Its suppression of the Bersih rally drew widespread condemnation from the global media, with UK’s The Guardian going as far as to compare the Najib government to ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

“To be honest, if the economy performs very well — high commodity prices, low inflation, increasing wages and improved employment opportunities — then really, political abuses take a back seat,” DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua told The Malaysian Insider.

But Pua argued that the the current administration under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was not in full control of the economy, and charged that many “economic benchmarks” — global commodity prices like crude oil, natural gas, rubber, palm oil — were not within the government’s control.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP said that many key policies have not been “followed through” due to race-based objections from political groups.

“Major privatisations contracts are still being awarded on a direct negotiation basis without a credible open tender system. Policy ‘pillars’ such as the Approved Permit (AP) system for cars and a host of other imported goods remain in the selected hands of connected companies in the guise of ‘Bumiputera development’,” said Pua, adding that unless the government addressed its economic reform plans seriously, its policies would backfire.

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