No government in the world has 100% support
Salleh Said Keruak
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin raised a very interesting point today when he said that Umno is suffering from a ‘trust deficit’. That is actually a problem all political parties the world over are suffering from.
Even back in 1955, two years before Merdeka, Umno had to contest the elections as the Alliance Party, a coalition with MCA and MIC, to be able to gain enough seats to form the government. In that election the Alliance won 51 of the 52 seats contested, probably a world record by any standards.
However, while the Alliance Party won almost 100% of the seats it did so on slightly less than 80% of the popular votes. Just two years after Merdeka, in 1959, the Alliance Party won just 51% of the popular votes and in the ‘historic’ 1969 general election just 49% of the votes.
Then Barisan Nasional was formed to replace the Alliance Party and, over a period of 30 years up to 2004, it won between 53-64% of the popular votes. When the economy happened to be good and people have more money in their pockets the votes are higher but when the world is facing a global recession and times are hard it is lower.
That is the first thing you learn if you want to become a politician and if you aspire to hold public office. Ideals are not important to most voters, especially if you have no money, because ideals cannot put food on the table.
