Can the resurgent BN steer a middle course?

 

Obviously, few had predicted a landslide victory for Barisan Nasional at the Melaka elections, although many had thought it might obtain a simple majority in the state assembly.

Some online commenters say that the Melaka scenario will not be the same at the national level when a general election is called.

BN secured an impressive win despite only managing 38% of the popular votes, while Pakatan Harapan managed nearly 36% but only won five seats. Perikatan Nasional, on the other hand, won only two seats but amassed 25% of the votes cast.

Obviously BN’s two-thirds majority with 21 seats with that percentage of votes comes off as a bit odd, but such is the reality of the distribution of votes in Malaysian constituencies where the population of one seat sometimes totals three others in the same state. It’s very lopsided and that is why BN won that many seats with 38% of the votes.

PN and PH obtained 61% of the votes but only won seven seats combined. This does not reflect the actual democracy that we speak about but as we follow the Westminster system, the “first past the post” rule decides who governs.

In Malaysian politics, we have parties with lower popular votes winning general elections. So all the excuses of this snag or other, or a poor turnout, will not change things much. The truth is the voters are split three ways now. It is very unlikely that those who voted for PN will vote for PH now.

Even if the leaders of the two entities decide to enter into a grand coalition, they will not be assured of votes from each other’s supporters. Allegations of corruption too are not going to have any effect, as seen by the response of voters in Melaka.

For Malay voters, the demonisation of DAP by its political rivals appears to be still working.

Mere wishful thinking is driving the argument going around on social media that if those who had voted for PN had thrown their support behind PH, the opposition would have won. The truth is this split is here to stay, unfortunately.

We have the BN which is led by Umno, PN led by a group of Malay-majority leaders and PH which is more multi-racial than the two but with mainly Chinese supporters. A micro look at the results shows that no one is sure if the majority of the voters are happy with the outcome.

Going by the percentage of votes, the majority should be unhappy. Going by democractic notions, Melaka is a happy state under a BN with a two-third majority. PN may have only won two seats but it managed to get a high share of votes, signalling its growing strength without DAP and Amanah but with support from PAS.

For some, the BN’s path is as close as we can get to a middle Malaysia if the nation is to see any semblance of genuine unity. PN, which openly advocated racial and religious supremacy, is out of the way now.

But BN can only do this without the current gung-ho PAS. There is hope that only Umno can check and change the extremist views that the leaders of the Islamic party seem to be displaying.

As for the fanatical non-Malays, perhaps there has come a time to take a different approach to ensure they are not marginalised. Let’s face it, fanatics are to be found in every community.

Here, it has to be a two-way traffic as the government and the private sector need to address racism and religious bigotry. Some might say just migrate if you are unhappy but the fact is most of the non-Malays just can’t afford to leave the country, for financial and filial reasons.

For the majority, this is their motherland and they prefer to remain here and do their best under the circumstances but without being subjected to any form of racism, institutionalised or otherwise.

I am not sure if the resurgent BN can make this nation safe and equal for all. We can only hope, I guess. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.