Buying support – Najib’s ‘commercialisation’ of GE13

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Apr 24, 2013

Bridget Welsh, Malaysiakini

The billion ringgit question of this campaign is how much is being spent in the 2013 general election campaign and who is paying for it?
Throughout the country, voters are already reporting early efforts to woo the electorate such as special grocery vouchers of RM300 in Sandakan and handouts of RM50 to attend a Umno meeting in Tanjong Malim, among many others.

The promise of more goodies on the way is being repeated over and over, from the symbolic extension and increase of BR1M (Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia) to more general ‘assistance’.

The use of electoral incentives is well-known and honed, but there is a fundamental shift in the overall pattern this time round. Scholars such as Universiti Sains Malaysia emeritus professor Francis Loh have described the electioneering pattern as from one of patronage to ‘developmentalism’, where voters have moved from relying on everyday personal ties and relations with politicians to the promise of development projects.

In this election, a new pattern of commercialisation has emerged, where the ‘You help me, I help you’ and ‘Let’s make a deal’ mantras are framing the campaign in what is crassly an economic exchange.

The base money flows, materialism and expensive brand marketing in GE13 cannot be understated, as they represent the dominant strategic mode of BN’s campaign.

Najib’s RM58bil election primer

Incumbent Prime Minister Najib Razak has systematically adopted this strategy since taking office in April 2009.

He knew he inherited a difficult terrain, and more importantly, he would need to win seats. In the four years before he dissolved parliament to get his own mandate, he engaged in arguably the most expensive election primer in Southeast Asia, and by far the most expensive in Malaysian history.

Gleaned from over 4,000 news reports since April 2009 and a study of the three budgets/supplemental budgets (2010-2013), I conservatively estimate that his administration has spent a total of RM57.7 billion from after he took over as PM to just before the dissolution of parliament on election-related incentives.

(The primary sources of these electoral-related pledges are from national news agency Bernama.)

The two main components of this largess are politically targeted distributions and 1Malaysia spending. These measures are inherently political as not only are they framed as political tools, they are being openly been touted as a reason to support the BN at the voting booth.

As shown in the table, the main share of the election primer is not BR1M in the overall 1Malaysia programmes – this only amounted to RM5.6 billion – but other measures including salary increases and targeted populist initiatives in areas such as school construction from money administered through the PM’s Office.

Targeted items include money to taxi drivers, repeated allocations for fisher folks, special allocations for the Danga development project in Johor, a rice subsidy for Orang Asli, special settlement for housing in Hulu Selangor, tricycle 50 percent subsidy support for those in agribusiness, subsidised discounts for students on trains, solar energy subsidies and so much more.

The estimate excludes money spent on special infrastructure projects, which have the spillover of government contracts. These have increased, especially in the defence sector.

Please note that this spending only captures public spending, and excludes the non-transparent donations of mass dinners, entertainers and use of jets provided free by government-linked private businessmen.

I also exclude the repeated announcements of treating different communities to a meal and drink, as the reports are only the tip of the iceberg for this funding. This estimate, and this is only what it can be seen to be an estimate, also does not fully capture the spending by the BN-linked 1Malaysia NGOs, whose funding sources remain ambiguous.