Why Malays do not vote for PAS
The Malay voters feel that changing Umno is equivalent to bringing about the fall of the government and this creates fear in civil servants and their families, says PAS president Hadi Awang.
K Pragalath, FMT
PAS president Hadi Awang pointed out that the major challenge for his party is to overcome the Malay political psyche that has failed to distinguish the difference between a ruling party and a government.
“We cannot deny that there is dependence of Malay voters on the ruling party, limited understanding of the faith, weak education and no access to information,” said Hadi regarding the party’s core voters while delivering his keynote address themed as ‘Blessings for All’ at PAS’ 59th muktamar session at Stadium Melawati.
“They have failed to differentiate a ruling party and a government. As a result, they think Umno is government and government is Umno,” he said.
Hadi said this had created an Umno relying on the mentality to the Malays.
“The Malay voters felt that changing Umno was equivalent to bringing about the fall of the government and this creates fear in government officials and their families.
“They think that government property is Umno’s and so do not see anything wrong in the misuse of funds by Umno to openly bribe voters.
To overcome this hurdle, Hadi suggested three methods.
The three are to ensure all of PAS briefings to the people must be based on changing the ruling party instead of changing the government.
He called for continuous talks so that the Malay voters would understand that the government would remain and it was only Umno that would be removed from ruling.
Hadi said bringing the downfall of Umno was not equivalent to bringing down the downfall of the Malaysian government.
