How to win over Malays: build bridges instead of appeasement

 In a previous comment piece, I argued that DAP's old guard should step aside and make way for new leaders who could make inroads among the Malay community and balance the party's "liberal" ideals with Malaysia's conservative realities.

This appeared to ruffle some feathers as some felt this was Malay appeasement.

Perhaps, I was indeed naive as some have claimed, but I believe my naivete was in assuming that it was obvious that winning over Malays does not mean veering to the right.

Let us first examine a few realities about Malaysia that any political party that wants to realistically win an election must take into account:

• According to the Statistics Department, 69.8 percent of the Malaysian population as of 2021 is estimated to be bumiputera. Of this number, a majority are quite likely Malays.
• In order to win an election - at least under the current very flawed electoral system - you need to win at least a portion of the Malay "heartland" seats. A party or coalition can win 100 percent of votes in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Penang but that will not give them enough seats to form a federal government.
• A sizeable number of voters - if not the majority - in the Malay heartlands are likely to have value systems that can best be defined as conservative.

From the Malacca election, we can deduce that Pakatan Harapan does not have enough support from Malay conservative voters.

Thus, realistically speaking, inroads must be made in the Malay community for Harapan to have even a remote chance of winning the next general election.

At the same time, they must of course maintain their non-Malay support base.

Winning over Malays, however, does not mean Harapan and DAP should veer right and stoop down to saying "we accept your ketuanan, support us please".

Instead, bridges must be built.

Harapan and DAP must convince Malay supporters that their Malaysian-first approach does not disadvantage Malays and actually helps Malays as they form the majority, especially the bottom 60 percent, while at the same time giving others equal help and opportunities.

They need to convince the Malays that those who claim to be fighting for them are actually more interested in padding their own wallets and making the rich even richer via less than honest means.

It sounds like a very simple message that any logical person should be able to accept.

Backfire effect

However, it goes against the belief that "Malaysian first" is actually a veiled attempt to destroy Malays as has been drummed up by Umno and the like repeatedly over decades in order to maintain power and continue plundering the country.

But the reason why these Umno or Perikatan Nasional supporting Malays reject messages of inclusivity is not that they are uneducated, stupid, lazy, or anything of that sort which some people who claim to be liberals and non-racists believe it to be.

Instead, it is in part due to psychological phenomena such as confirmation bias and belief perseverance, where presenting new ideas that are factual can trigger a negative response if it goes against someone's deep-held beliefs.

It is sometimes called the backfire effect.

If that's hard to wrap your head around, or you have no time to research this, here's a clip from fact-checking US TV show Adam Ruins Everything that makes it easy to understand.

So, when you've been told for decades by your political masters that Lim Guan Eng and Lim Kit Siang are racists, anti-Malay and anti-Muslim, it is difficult to believe or accept that they are not, regardless of their best efforts to prove themselves.

Likewise, when you believe for decades - rightfully or not - that Dr Mahathir Mohamad is a racist dictator, it is difficult to accept him or view him in any other light, and everything he does will be scrutinised through this lens.

So, if DAP wants to build a bridge to the Malay community, the bridge must not be built or occupied by those that the Malay community believes are trolls who want to eat them.

Worth a shot

Thus, this necessitates a new leadership that is viewed to be free from the Lim dynasty's influence and control, to take over DAP - if they want to be realistic about winning elections.

This does not mean giving up on values, nor does it mean that the Lims' many, many sacrifices and contributions must be forgotten or kept hidden.

Yes, there is no guarantee that a new DAP leadership will be able to get conservative Malays to cross their bridge.

But it is worth a shot. Otherwise, it will just be trying to do the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome, which a purported quote some attribute to Albert Einstein says is the definition of insanity.

To frame this argument in another perspective, DAP suffers from bad branding and some big changes need to be made to build brand confidence and tap into new markets.

Anwar Ibrahim

While on the subject of marketing strategies, I would like to briefly touch on Anwar Ibrahim and why he should resign.

People who follow brands usually become fans for one of two reasons: it's established and reliable, or it's new and exciting.

Anwar's brand is neither.

He is indeed established, but Harapan's multiple failures under his leadership have led to a brand image that Anwar is unreliable.

It's not a brand that inspires confidence going into a major general election.

Reversing this requires several consistent victories, but there is realistically no time for Anwar to chalk up any notable wins before GE15 takes place.

Thus, Harapan should instead try for something new and exciting to whip up excitement among voters - especially new ones - to get them the votes they need.

And as mentioned earlier, new and exciting Anwar is not. - Mkini

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ZIKRI KAMARULZAMAN is a member of Malaysiakini Team.