GEORGE TOWN: A study involving selected focus groups of Malays in different parts of the country has found that most Malays are worried about their special rights under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government.
The joint study by the Penang Institute and Ilham Centre found that those in the central region of the peninsula favoured PH while those in the southern, northern and east coast belts favoured PAS and Umno.
It also found that Malay youths are excited about having a new government and that there is sympathy for former prime minister Najib Razak among older Malays.
It found too that a section of the Malays are not happy with the appointment of non-Malays to top posts.
The findings are based on 18 focus group discussions comprising a total of 125 people, divided into three categories: “youths below 30”, “adult men” and “women”. Individuals who were selected did not know each other. The research was held between Oct 21 and Nov 21 last year.
Ilham Centre fellow and head of research Mohd Yusri Ibrahim said at a talk here yesterday on the findings that the older Malays in the rural areas, in particular, were concerned about the “erosion of Malay rights” and were still reeling from “shock” over PH’s win.
“These older Malay folks in the northern, southern and east coast states are worried about their special rights, the sanctity of Islam, the royal institution and the use of Bahasa Malaysia under the direction of the PH government,” he said at a talk at the Penang Institute last night.
Yusri said another major concern of the Malays are economic and cost of living issues, with their income affected by dwindling prices of palm oil, rubber and coconuts after May 9, 2018.
He said this had led to doubts as to whether the PH government could do better than the previous Barisan Nasional regime in improving their core agricultural economies.
Yusri said groups interviewed were also not happy about non-Malays being appointed to top posts, particularly that of the finance minister, the attorney-general and the chief justice.
“They feel it is a threat to the Malays’ special rights and ask why capable Malays were not selected instead.
“The Malays in the central region, however, find Lim Guan Eng’s appointment as finance minister acceptable due to his stint as Penang chief minister.
“But they are against Tommy Thomas’ and Richard Malanjum’s appointments as they fear it will threaten matters related to Muslim legal issues,” he said.
Malays unhappy Chinese still can’t speak Bahasa well
Yusri said some Malays felt Lim’s use of Chinese in his statements on Facebook was offensive to Malays and the supremacy of Bahasa Malaysia in general.
“While most are against English medium schools, respondents are okay with the education minister’s call to learn a ‘third language’ such as Chinese, Tamil, Arabic, Japanese and Javanese.
“Most remain offended that the Chinese community remains not so fluent in Bahasa despite being in the country for decades,” he said.
Yusri said the Malays were also jittery over the high number of non-Malay representatives in PH and more Malay representatives in the opposition.
He said the older Malays interviewed in the northern, Sabah and Sarawak regions felt sympathetic towards Najib, saying the lawsuits brought against him are a form of revenge by PH.
Yusri said the Malays who supported PH were in the Klang Valley and urban centres in the central zone states such as Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Negeri Sembilan.
Most Malays support PAS
He said one out of five Malay voters voted for PH, while the east coast states and rural Malays, in general, gave their full support to PAS.
He said the Malays who voted for parties other than BN did so because they wanted to oust Najib over the 1MDB issue, corruption and the Goods and Services Tax.
Yusri said his research also found that those in the central zone were the most forgiving of the current PH government and felt it needed more time to implement reforms.
“The Malay youths across the country are excited that there is a new government at the federal level for the first time,” he said.
He said in Sarawak, the Malay Melanaus were afraid the chief minister’s post would go to another ethnic group if PH were to win in the state polls which must be held by Sept 2021.
Malays not tribal
At the talk, Lawyers for Liberty executive director Latheefa Koya said while it was not surprising for the Malay majority in the country to feel worried after a PH win, people should not treat the community as ‘tribal people’.
“We must stop seeing Malays as unique tribal people who have no access to information. There are good Malays and bad Malays, and there are people who reject corruption and some who condone them. It is not different from other communities,” she said.
Latheefa said Malays, like all other races in the country, faced a problem where there was a dearth of alternate views on a matter. She said the same experts from the BN era were still getting their outdated views in the media.
She said Malays must be supplied with a variety of views, and the PH government must continue to do so through various channels.
Latheefa said, for instance, while PKR was the pioneer in exposing corruption issues, the party failed to reach the Malay electorate in 2013 by not having Bahasa leaflets that explained the National Feedlot Corp issue and other issues of interest.
She said PKR did not print any Bahasa leaflets on corruption issues, but only had a Bahasa translation of a letter written by Yusof al-Qaradawi, a religious scholar sent to a Friday prayer congregation.
“We need more explainers in Bahasa so the Malay electorate can understand deeper about the country’s issues.”
Penang Institute’s Wong Chin Huat said it would be bad to assume that all Malays were built from the same mould, as they, like others in the world, could be liberal or conservative politically.
He said Malays were jittery over PH’s win due to a “winner takes all” democracy, instead of a “muafakat” or a goodwill democracy.
Wong said most Malays today could not stand being in the opposition for fear they would loose everything. He said this needed a rethink and must change. - FMT
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