Analyst: Removing race data from electoral roll won't lead to unity

An analyst believes that removing voters' race information from the electoral roll will not lead to greater unity, especially in the early stages of its implementation.

According to Awang Azman Awang Pawi of Universiti Malaya, the move will only be perceived as the Pakatan Harapan government's attempt to erode the constitutionally protected Malay privileges.

"The idea of the deletion of the race box on the electoral roll will be rejected by Malays, as it will be perceived as a denial of their special rights under the Federal Constitution," he told Malaysiakini in a text message.

"That action will also be seen as part of the Harapan's political agenda to reduce Malay influence in politics.

"It will be difficult to achieve, and will create more opposition towards Harapan due to the perceived insensitivity of the idea."

Awang was responding to Azhar Azizan Harun (below) telling BFM yesterday that the Election Commission will study the removal of race information from the electoral roll.

The EC chief was asked in the interview about doing away with racial identification to minimise racial rhetoric in campaign speeches.

"We have been talking about this for a long time, whether race should be included on even our identity cards... now, of course, we have to confront the question of whether race should be done away with in the electoral roll altogether.

"We will need to actually think about it in depth, and see why we need the race (information) there, and if it is needed at all.

"We will look at it (as part of) the reform agenda that we are going to carry out," he said.

Seat distribution

At present, parties from both sides of the political divide make use of the race information in the electoral roll to distribute seats between allies and plan election strategies.

As Awang (above) noted, however, removing this information is not feasible, as the government needs to acknowledge the country's ethnic diversity.

"The formation of Malaysia recognised the many ethnic groups in Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, as well as Malays being the biggest and the core population in Malaysia."

Instead, Awang suggested, Putrajaya should focus on reducing income inequality, which he believes will create greater solidarity among different ethnic groups.

'Won't reduce communal politics'

Political scientist Wong Chin Huat (below), meanwhile, said that the removal of race information from the electoral roll would have little effect on communal politics.

"It is well-intended, but its effect on discouraging communal politics might be limited.

"To begin with, the EC does not officially reveal ethno-religious information, but tech-savvy analysts of electoral rolls, who have no access to that data, can read it from the names with a high degree of accuracy," he said.

Wong encouraged the EC to learn from its counterpart in Germany, which includes voters' socioeconomic data in its registry.

"One can only make ethnicity less relevant by making the non-communal divisions more relevant.

"If we have data about the percentages of the bottom 40 (B40) income group, home ownership and employment by economic sector, parties and politicians will have more issues to care about besides ethnicity and religion.

"This is possible if future electoral divisions can better match socioeconomic data," he said. - Mkini