Vote for party, not candidate
Our politics has obviously moved towards duality in which those who are not categorised as friends will be regarded as enemies. It has also made it difficult for independent candidates or a third force to rise. The by-election held in Johor Bahru on August 25, 1988 serves as the best example here.
Lim Mun Fah, Sin Chew Daily
The next general election seems so near yet so far. Political parties seem to have decided their candidates and it is now just the question of time for the official announcements by party leaders.
Candidates are indeed important as they are representatives of their respective parties and might be leaders of the country in the future. However, I am more and more convinced that the next general election is going to be a battle between the BN and the Pakatan Rakyat. Except for a few heavyweight candidates or those who are really notorious, voters would basically tend to vote for political parties, instead of candidates.
According to my personal observation, supporters of the alternative coalition basically voted for the party instead of the candidates in the past few general elections. For them, it was more important to let the alternative coalition expand its political map than supporting the candidates. Moreover, the alternative coalition had been facing a talent shortage problem even in the last general election.
However, the next general election will be different from the previous ones. After the 2008 political tsunami, many young intellectuals have joined the Pakatan Rakyat and it has strengthened the base of the coalition while enabling it to have a large number of potential and talented candidates with political ideals.
It also means that this time, BN candidates will no longer face opponents who are incomparable with them in terms of personal knowledge, image and talent. Instead, they will compete with opponents with equal strength or even stronger.
Undeniably, the quality improvement of candidates can strengthen the trust of voters while making the election campaigns more worth seeing. However, similar personal qualities might cause voters to further tend to vote for parties and not to care about comparing the candidates.
Our politics has obviously moved towards duality in which those who are not categorised as friends will be regarded as enemies. It has also made it difficult for independent candidates or a third force to rise. The by-election held in Johor Bahru on August 25, 1988 serves as the best example here.
There was an outbreak of struggle between team A and team B within Umno at that time. Former Welfare Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad, a team B leader along with former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam, resigned from his Johor Bahru parliamentary seat after being sacked from Umno, forcing a sensational by-election.
The then Umno was divided into the confronting team A and team B and the voters would also like to take the opportunity to teach the domineering Umno a lesson by intensifying the confrontation. Therefore, they urged Partai Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia (PSRM) Deputy Chairman Abdul Razak Ahmad to withdraw from the election, but Razak insisted to contest. As a result, Shahrir won with a majority more than double the votes of BN candidate, while causing the prestigious Razak to lose his deposit.
The by-election illustrated the fact that in an era asking for changes, the situation is always prioritised over people. It is not changeable by personal prestige. Similar to the current situation, voters generally want to see a showdown between the BN and the Pakatan Rakyat and therefore, the next general election is doomed to be a battle in which voters vote for political parties, instead of candidates.
