Group voters according to age not race, PAS tells EC
Zurairi AR, TMI
PAS today urged the Election Commission (EC) to group voters according to age and not race, to stop political discourse from revolving around racial lines in the future.
Up until Election 2013, the statistics for each seats contested in the polls have always included the racial breakdown of voters in the constituency according to their ethnic groups.
“It is time for an overhaul, with the EC releasing voter breakdown according to age or sex as the official data distributed to the media and the public,” said PAS information chief Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man (picture).
“Racial breakdown data does not need to be released unless there is a need for it.”
According to Tuan Ibrahim, grouping voters using age or sex will automatically ensure that political campaigns are centred around racially inclusive policies, and stop politicians from fanning racial and religious sentiments to garner votes.
The just-concluded Election 2013 saw the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) pact recapture federal power but with an even slimmer majority than in Election 2008, winning only 133 seats to Pakatan Rakyat’s 89 in the 222-seat Parliament.
In the aftermath of a slim BN win in Sunday’s polls, the coalition’s chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak termed the results a “Chinese tsunami”, even saying that if not handled carefully the nation could see days of unrest ahead.
Adding salt to an already festering wound, Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia published on its front page on Tuesday an article headlined “Apa lagi Cina mahu? (What else do the Chinese want?)”, a phrase which has turned viral on the Internet’s social sphere.
The newspaper came immediately under fire and angry netizens and politicians across the political divide railed against Najib and Umno for allowing the media to run riot with such incendiary headlines.
But despite the criticisms, Najib came to the paper’s defence and even appeared to blame the DAP, claiming the predominantly Chinese opposition party had misled the Chinese into greater racial polarisation by making them think that voting the party would lead to a change of government.
