Indians likely kingmakers in next polls

Come the 13th general election, ethnic Indians could tilt the balance.

GEORGE TOWN: Ethnic Indians, the majority of whom are currently fence-sitters, will be the kingmakers in next general election, at least in Peninsular Malaysia, predicted an academician here today.

Political scientist Sivamurugan Pandian of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) argued that it was now a matter of who would be the first off the block to move swiftly and catch these floating votes.

“Whichever political block could muster majority support from the community could emerge the overall electoral winner,” he said.

His prediction was based on the deeply divided Malaysian voters along ethnic lines.

Although Indians overwhelmingly backed Pakatan Rakyat in the last general election, he said many have already disassociated themselves from the coalition.

He blamed Pakatan’s ignorance, negligence and incompetence to address the Indian plight as the main reason behind the drastic drift of the community votes within two years.

But, he said this did not mean that Indians have moved to Barisan Nasional (BN).

“The emergence of a third force, especially with strong backing from Hindraf Makkal Sakti, could even sway their votes,” said Sivamurugan, the deputy dean of USM’s School of Social Sciences.

He said currently about 60% of ethnic Malays, mainly the lower and lower-middle income groups in both rural and urban areas, were backing BN because Umno was still their biggest influence.

He agreed that the middle and higher-income urban Malays may view things in a different political perspective due to their accessibility to various sources of information.

But, he said this group only constituted a minority portion of ethnic Malay votes.

“Hence, BN still holds the edge over Pakatan for the Malay vote bank,” he said.

However, he said that Pakatan has the edge in ethnic Chinese votes, enjoying some 70% to 80% of the community support.

Thus, he said ethnic Indians would tilt the balance and decide the electoral outcome in the western part of the country.

He said BN, which enjoys the support of many Indian-based parties and NGOs, had the edge over Pakatan in garnering the Indian votes.

Direct approach

Sivamurugan said that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s direct approach style has been well received by the community.

“The Najib’s administration may not have done anything substantial for the community. But he is at least seen to be doing something worthy, compared with Pakatan leaders.

“The lower and middle-income Indians feel worse off under Pakatan’s so-called multi-racial politics than BN ethnic-based politics,” said Sivamurugan.

He pointed out that the change of guard in MIC, the country’s leading Indian-based party, was timely and could prove crucial.

He called on the new party president G Palanivel to come out from the former president’s shadow to show that he was a leader by his own right.

“Palanivel faces an arduous task to restore Indian confidence in MIC and BN after an awful performance the last time.

“If he can devise and execute effective party programmes and strategies, Indians could be back to BN.

“This can happen especially when Pakatan seems not bothered about ethnic Indian welfare and votes,” said Sivamurugan. - FMT