PAS: We did lose rural Malay votes but…
Party vice president Salahuddin Ayub says while they may have lost some rural votes, PAS had made inroads in states such as Johor and Terengganu.
G Vinod, FMT
PAS vice president Salahuddin Ayub attributed the party’s losses at the Malay rural heartland due to lack of information dissemination.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with FMT, Salahuddin said that PAS failed to counter the negative portrayal against the party via the BN-controlled mainstream media in the last general election.
“We faced a lot of problem from mainstream media. Barisan Nasional (BN) used the race and religious card as a weapon against us.
“Having said that, we also failed to counter the negative perception. Our machinery in the rural area did not work as well as we thought it would,” he said.
In the last general election, PAS grabbed 21 parliamentary seats, as opposed to the 23 it won in 2008. Its allies in Pakatan Rakyat, DAP and PKR gained 38 seats and 30 respectively.
Elaborating on that point, Salahuddin said that PAS grassroots failed to counter BN’s propaganda on the mainstream media that claimed the Islamic party was only a minor player in the Pakatan fold.
“We lacked party branches and machinery to counter the negative perception in rural areas. Moving forward, we need to address this. The party will set up more branches in the rural areas to welcome more members,” he said.
Salahuddin added that while they have lost some rural votes in states like Negeri Sembilan and Kedah, they managed to retain Kelantan and gained significantly in Terengganu.
“We also made inroads in Johor. I know this because I’m leading the party’s post-mortem team for general election. The full report and details will be tabled in November,” he said.
