Master of the polls, ruler of the game

Pakatan needs to be mindful of the fact that BN has perfected the art of exploiting the urban-rural divide from one general election to the next

COMMENT

With the re-delineation of boundaries looming as a possible threat to Pakatan Rakyat’s chances of winning more seats in the next general election, PR’s strategists must give a thought on how to overcome the great population-divide. Largely there are two types of population-divide: a) the urban-rural divide; and b) the private sector-public sector divide.

First of all, the urban-rural divide. It is without doubt that it is the rural folk who had contributed mainly to BN’s victory in the 13th general election. A friend of this columnist who went to campaign in the rural areas had related stories about crime in the city and the high cost of city living to the rural folk but they seem disinterested.

This is because the rural folk do not experience the difficulties such as inflation, high rental of homes, inefficient and costly transport, burdensome loan repayments and other aspects of city life. The rural folk have their own land, they are self-sufficient and they can just travel by bicycle or an old motorbike from one place to another. To sum up, they are comfortable and the problems of the urban folk are alien to them. But it is they who decide the destiny of the city folk!

And that is the reason why BN continues to win one general election after another. All BN needs to do is very simple – they just look after the interests of these rural folk and maintain a sufficient number of these rural seats and they can win for all eternity.

This method is also applied to the urban-rural divide in East Malaysia whereby the native folk are provided with sufficient amenities minus the internet and of course they too become sufficiently compliant and contented enough to vote BN. Why not when their life is comfortable and laid-back?

So this is how easy it is for BN to win. They have perfected the game by fine-tuning the system from one general election to the next.

Truth be told, 65% of parliament seats in Malaysia are located in the rural areas although 70% of the population are in urban areas. According to Bar Council’s Andrew Khoo, in the 13th general election BN has captured 112 out of 130 parliamentary seats that are categorised as small seats. BN won about 2.21 million popular votes in these 112 seats. In other words, BN only needed 19.97% of the popular vote to form the federal government with ease.

Machiavellian policies

This unfair re-delineation is only known to a few informed citizens and therefore the Election Commission is bold enough to re-draw the boundaries to favour their political master. In addition to that, we must not forget about the existence of the public sector-private sector divide which is also becoming increasingly massive.

The public sector encompasses the civil servants, pensioners, teachers, the Felda, Felcra and Risda staff and staffs of other government agencies and national/public institutions and commissions such as the Election Commission and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission which by right should be neutral and independent. As more and more people are roped-in to join these above-mentioned sectors, the BN federal government gets to increase their vote bank while Pakatan will try to obtain votes from the private sector.

The 13th general election showed that the end result was decided by the minority rural folk who do not know or bother about the difficulties or problems faced by us. We urbanites have to deal with soaring inflation, crime and monthly loan repayments as part of our daily living. But the rural folk do not bother about changing the government because everything is fine for them as city problems do not affect their lifestyle.

Moreover, the rural folk do not share the same values as the urban folk. Urban folk place emphasis on good governance, human and civil rights and reject racist arguments while for the rural folk these issues are Greek and they do not have resonance for these matters because they live in a world of their own.

The only solution for Pakatan Rakyat then is to: a) register more urban voters; and b) campaign more in the rural areas through the distribution of flyers and home visits to educate the rural folk by informing them how mismanagement can eventually affect their lives.

At the end of the day, the population divide gets increasingly worse as the government formulates policies to take care of the interest of rural folk and we the urbanites will thus continue to blame the rural voters for causing difficulties in our lives.

This is indeed a sad state of affairs as the Machiavellian policies will exacerbate the population-divide in order for the ignorant to outvote the wise just so that status quo continues. Will this then cause the nation to lose its competitive edge?

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.