Discussion: Commentary on an article in 'Politik Citra di Malaysia: Antara Kebenaran dan Kepalsuan’

The article that inspires me into writing this commentary is on the seventh chapter in the book entitled, Mengamati Politik Pecutan Menjelang Pilihan Raya. This article specifically touches on the political strategies that was used in the previous Malaysian political scene, especially when the General Election (G. E.) is around the corner.

Since Malaysian G. E. is quinquennial, accelerated politics (politik pecutan) always happen at the second half of the five-year-term. During the third until the fifth year, suddenly all the political measures are fast-paced, immediate, and instant – unlike what had happened on the first half after the said party or a coalition had won the majority as addressed by the author.

Source: Wix

According to Mr. Ismail, the tools of accelerated politics include ready money assistance (bantuan wang kontan) which only a one-off event throughout the term. An amount of RM 500.00 were given to the families whose its total household income was equal to and less than RM 3,000.00. These ‘incentives’ had to be used within two fixed months; from 15th of January 2012 until March 2012 in a form of cash vouchers. It means, after the expiry date, these coupons are useless. Other than that, the same tactic is used where RM 300 million were allocated by the previous government in order to ‘empower’ 1.5 million Malaysian youths which were used as a rebate for buying hand phones. Every new purchase of phones during that time will get a discount or a cashback of RM 200.

The author also comes up with an intelligent, subtle, but effective statement; suddenly, the people’s welfare are being taken care of. This statement is followed by a mind-lingering question, “Why don’t they do it (actions) in stages throughout the whole five years of governing the country?”

By reading and re-reading, I get the gist and the nuance of the whole article. The author is claiming that the votes are manipulated by the dirty politicians who takes advantage of innocent and naïve people in the middle and the lower social strata. The manipulation often come in form of money and incentives – which can also translated as bribery in exchange for votes in order to gain power.

Through this article, I can conclude that these dirty politicians are persuading voters by manipulating their feelings by two things; (i) guilt trip and (ii) fear mongering.

The way they orchestrated the ‘guilt trip’ tactic is by giving out incentives and fast-money. When the people received all the goods from the dirty politicians, automatically they will think that they are doing something good and the receivers must repay the deeds. This is parallel with a Malay saying, ‘hutang budi dibawa mati,’ where the people believe in returning the favour by voting. If the people refuses to vote for the certain politicians, guilt will start to haunt them. Words like tidak mengenang budi or other guilt tripping quotes will start to go around everywhere. Thus, resulting these poor, oblivious people to cast their vote, siding themselves with the corrupt politicians.

Fear mongering plays an important role to make sure that the people will only vote for the specific candidate that have a certain similar attribution as the voters. Since the politics in Malaysia practices race and religion based ideology in the beginning of post-Independence Malaysia, the trend is still instilled in certain Malaysian due to excessive fear-mongering by the filthy politicians. Race and religion cards are often being chosen to create tense in this multi-cultural nation although they know that unity should be thrived instead.

In conclusion, I am personally aligned with the author's view. These tactics are definitely not healthy nor sustainable for the foreseeable future.