'Window closing rapidly', Harapan warned after Johor rout

 

Claiming to have felt the full force of Indian voters’ anger while campaigning for Pakatan Harapan in the Johor state election, Charles Santiago has issued a grim warning to the coalition following its electoral rout.

“Harapan’s window to change course is closing rapidly,” said the former DAP MP.

Charles said it would be ignorant to view Johor merely as an election defeat.

“It was also a referendum on broken promises. Ignore it, and Negeri Sembilan (which will hold its election on Aug 1) may become the next chapter in the same story,” he added in a statement.

Charles, who had claimed to have walked into an “inferno” during a meeting with Indian community leaders ahead of the Johor election, said the answer was not better political messaging but a return to the reform agenda that brought Harapan to power.

He said the agenda should begin with concrete action, including:

• Making public the investigation report into former MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki and demonstrating an uncompromising commitment to institutional accountability.

• Presenting a credible new socio-economic development deal to address the long-standing structural challenges facing the Indian community.

• Introducing a comprehensive social protection package for Malaysia’s two million gig workers, providing meaningful living wages, healthcare, and retirement savings.

Own failure

Charles said the Johor state election delivered a clear political message that should not be dismissed as an isolated setback.

“First, Harapan no longer enjoys a monopoly over the non-Malay vote. The assumption that non-Malay voters have nowhere else to go has been decisively challenged.

“Second, the voting pattern suggests an important generational shift. Younger non-Malay voters were more willing to support BN and Parti Bersama Malaysia, while older voters largely remained loyal to Harapan. This emerging divide deserves serious reflection,” he added.

Charles further said the long-standing strategy of invoking PAS as the religious bogeyman to consolidate non-Malay support also appeared to be losing its effectiveness, with fear no longer a sufficient substitute for governance, reform, and delivery.

“Fourth, Harapan’s poor performance has far more to do with its own failure to honour key reform commitments than with attempts to blame Bersama, a party that has existed for just 53 days, for splitting the vote.

“Voters are expressing disappointment with unfulfilled promises, not merely reacting to the presence of another political party,” he added.

In Saturday’s state election, BN won 48 out of 56 seats, an increase of eight from the 2022 state polls. Harapan won the remaining eight seats, losing four from its previous tally of 12. - Mkini