Will BN recapture Selangor?

The situation is quite dire for Pakatan as it has taken no steps whatsoever to counter Umno's lies and propaganda.

COMMENT

There have been grassroots reports that Umno party workers have been campaigning in the Malay rural heartland in Selangor by telling the rural folk two simple lies. The first is that if Pakatan Rakyat wins the 13th general election, DAP will “Christianise” the country and turn Malaysia into a republic like Singapore.

The second big lie spread by the Umno campaigners is that PKR’s revelations on the (National) Feedlot (Corporation) issue are all baseless. Of course, all these are falsehoods by Umno campaigners and it reveals that Umno’s desperation has already come to the fore.

Nevertheless, this is a very effective two-pronged attacking method employed by Umno in capturing the hearts and minds of the Malays so that they will give their vote to Barisan Nasional (BN).

So far, the Pakatan Selangor state government is either oblivious to Umno’s campaign or is in the dark about it as no steps whatsoever have been taken to counter Umno’s lies and propaganda.

If the Pakatan Selangor government does not take any action to reach out and explain the truth to the people, then all is lost as the polls could be held as early as February next year.

In reality, the situation in Selangor is quite dire for Pakatan. There is no use harping on “Merakyatkan Ekonomi Selangor” when Umno’s propaganda in regard to DAP and the Feedlot issues are taking root.

Ground reports have revealed that the Malay rural folk are starting to believe that DAP wants to turn Malaysia into a republic and PKR’s revelations on Feedlot are nothing but malicious lies to tarnish Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s reputation.

With the Malay support in the kualas and the hulus swinging to Umno, it is going to be a very difficult task for Pakatan to hold on to Selangor. This is a fact as there are many seats in the rural areas compared to the urban areas. A 5% vote swing by the Malays to Umno is enough for BN to recapture Selangor.

The statistics itself clearly illustrates the difficulty Pakatan is facing. There are 10 state assembly seats in Selangor where Pakatan won with a less than 10% majority in 2008.

They are Bukit Melawati, Cempaka, Teluk Datuk, Sekinchan, Damansara (wherein all five of these seats were won with a less than 5% majority), Ulu Kelang, Bukit Antarabangsa, Kota Anggerik, Lembah Jaya and Selat Kelang.

There are eight parliamentary seats in Selangor which were also won by less than 10% majority. They are Hulu Selangor, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat (all of which were won by less than 5% majority), Gombak, Ampang, Selayang and Kelana Jaya.

Hulu Selangor has already been recaptured by BN when MIC’s P Kamalanathan defeated PKR’s Zaid Ibrahim in the Hulu Selangor by-election in April last year.

Umno’s control of the media

The Pakatan state government is either disinterested in strategy or plain ignorant as to what is going on in the Malay heartland. Umno’s party workers are diligently doing home visits and their task is made easier as it is reinforced by the mainstream media, the only media which penetrates into the rural areas.

What the Pakatan Selangor government lacks is a strong propaganda tool in the form of leaflets and flyers (proven effective in 2008) which contain short news and snippets which can be easily read by the rural folk whereas the Malay mainstream media employs a brainwashing scheme to instill a love for Ketuanan Melayu into the hearts and minds of the Malays.

Inculcating in the Malays a love for Umno is akin to the methods employed by Joseph Goebbels (Minister of Propaganda) in the era of the Third Reich to brainwash the masses into adoring and supporting Adolf Hitler.

Controlling the media is one surefire way of controlling the mind of the nation’s citizens.

This method which pounds the message into our mind daily will succeed in dumbing-down the rakyat into becoming zombies who cannot think but are programmed to obey only their masters (media controllers). This was what Goebbels did to control the German population and this is what Umno is now doing via the mainstream media.

Nazi Germany became strong due to the media being able to garner support for Hitler and Umno will also become strong due to the mainstream media being able to manipulate and control the minds of the rural Malays which are Umno’s fixed deposit vote bank.

A person lacking in credibility can be transformed from zero to superhero via polishing of the media when the person’s image can be re-furbished, re-invented, re-branded and re-marketed as someone new. Therefore crooks can easily emerged unscathed and can continue in their crooked ways.

Back to the Pakatan Selangor government. The truth is that support for Pakatan has not increased since 2008 and with new suspicious names being added to the voters’ roll, it is increasingly looking like BN is going to win back Selangor. Ground and grassroots reports also indicate that fence-sitters have been won over by BN.

It is an utter waste for Pakatan if Selangor is lost due to Pakatan’s own folly of not using simple but effective media to reach out to the rural masses.

Truth be told, Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim runs Selangor like a corporation. He is oblivious to the harsh reality that a menteri besar in a Pakatan state must also know how to play politics. Otherwise, he will not be able to survive for long in a political climate where the enemies throw flying daggers at him.

Selana Tay is a FMT columnist.