It all depends on median voters
If Pakatan Rakyat is able to fight for another 300,000 votes or more support from median or swing voters, it can then overthrow BN. It is not something impossible.
By LIM SUE GOAN/Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/Sin Chew Daily
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is currently seeking for foreign investment in India to reverse the adverse situation.
However, the recent political development in the country seems favourable to Pakatan Rakyat, giving more hope for the Opposition to take over the federal government.
Pakatan Rakyat must first win more support from median voters in order to contend with UMNO’s rural area’s votes.
According to blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, based on a calculation in which BN gained a minimum of 30 majority seats in the 8 March general elections, Pakatan Rakyat will need to gain only 300,000 more votes to surpass BN’s 110 seats with 112 seats in the Parliament and take over the federal government. Currently, Pakatan Rakyat has 80 seats while BN has 130 seats.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission pointed out that a total of 4.39 million Malaysians have not registered as voters yet. It is said that 65% of them are Bumiputeras while Selangor has the highest number at 787,000 or 17.93%. No wonder why we can see Pakatan Rakyat and UMNO are in their efforts to carry out voter registration campaigns while MCA and GERAKAN remain silent.
If Pakatan Rakyat is able to fight for another 300,000 votes or more support from median or swing voters, it can then overthrow BN. It is not something impossible.
| “It is not something impossible.” |
In addition to do a better job, as well as to put forward unbiased policies and political ideologies, Pakatan Rakyat also have to rely on BN’s mistakes in order to gain support from median voters. And it just happens that BN has done a lot of mistakes recently. UMNO continues its racial strategy and relies too much on racial politics. This will force more median voters to move closer to Pakatan Rakyat.
After Najib’s announcement of a series of new policies on his 100th day in office, the Merdeka Centre’s approval rating released in July showed that Najib’s popularity has surged 65%. But the incidents happened in the following few moths were indeed a series a blows to him.
Firstly, the outburst of MCA party crisis in Aug last year has exposed the incredibility of MCA leaders. It also offered Pakatan Rakyat an opportunity to fight more Chinese median votes.
Secondly, MIC President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu has refused to step down while the Makka Sakti Party, which was roped in by Najib to please the Indian community, faced an internal struggle after a few months of its formation. It caused BN to have no confidence in gaining Indian swing votes.
Thirdly, UMNO did not appropriately handle the “Allah” controversy. It did not take immediate actions to stop it. In contrast, Pakatan Rakyat, it has indicated a moderate and middle stand earlier.
In addition, the BN government has also failed to properly handle economic issues, including the lose of funds and talents, sharp decline in foreign investment and the inability of the treasury to make ends meet. The new year has just started and the government already wants to impose service tax for credit cards and reduce subsidies for necessities. For median voters, economic and social stability is an issue of great concern.
DAP has taken the opportunity to map out the concept of “Middle Malaysia” to contend with Najib’s “1Malaysia” concept. DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng said the “Middle Malaysia” concept is as well a common strategy for Pakatan Rakyat.
If Pakatan Rakyat continues to take a moderate and middle stand while BN remains unchanged, that it will be difficult to say who will be the ultimate winner.
