Do voters have a say in a party’s choice of candidate?

 

From Lau Wei Zhong

I am one of the 6.9 million new voters who did not get to vote in 2018. I turned 21 only this April. So, yes, I am one of the 1.4 million Undi18 voters who can vote on Nov 19.

This letter is addressed to Selangor DAP chairman Gobind Singh Deo, secretary-general Loke Siew Fook, national chairman Lim Guan Eng and vice-presidents M Kula Segaran and Nga Kor Ming who will decide who will stand for which seat in the general election.

Political parties and non-governmental organisations have been calling for us, the Undi18 voters, to turn out to vote. Apparently, they know young people are less interested in politics than the batch four-and-half years ago.

I will definitely come out to vote. But I will not vote out of loyalty to any ethno-religious category, party or personality.

Voters do not have an obligation to vote for any party. Parties and candidates are but voters’ tools to set the direction they want the country and states to take.

If our MPs do a good job, we’ll continue to support them. If we want certain parties to run the government, we’ll vote for their candidates. If either the party or the candidate lets us down, we’ll just vote them out by voting for a better candidate.

That is what we were told about how democracy works. However, earlier this month, I found out that democracy is more complicated than that.

Voter choice v party choice

What if I like my MP but his party does not like him? How then can I vote for my favourite candidate, especially when he will not leave his party to contest as an independent?

I started a petition on Friday calling for Loke to listen to people like me. I came to learn that this problem not only affects my constituency, but many others, too.

I live in Pandamaran, near the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital. So, by location, I am a voter of P110 Klang and my MP was Charles Santiago.

Santiago was already a second-term MP in the last election, but I knew little about him. I was still in secondary school and did not really attend political activities then. I come from a regular middle-class family that is not particularly political.

When Klang was hit by unprecedented floods last year, my family was quite shocked and unhappy because the authorities failed, first in mitigating the floods and then also in providing relief.

While my family was lucky not to be affected, many others were less fortunate. It was then that I noticed Santiago’s work in attending to the plight of the people and providing the necessary assistance.

When there was any issue on the ground, he would be there.

A different kind of politician

I met Santiago for the first time around June in one of his weekly meet-the-people sessions every Thursday. I went to him to complain about the flood situation near my neighbourhood.

This personal interaction made me realise how amazingly different he was from the standard politician we knew from reports in the media. Politics, for this guy, was about making our society better. He was solving the problems people faced. It was not about showing his power, putting down other parties, or for prestige.

Santiago is someone who would actually listen to you and represent your interests. He is one of the few political leaders who is also gravely concerned about climate change. He was keenly aware that Klang is sinking.

He has also defended trade unions, refugees, labour rights and the right to healthcare. He has spoken up on citizenship and other human rights issues.

I admire him. So do many of my friends who live in the Klang area. We have so many adults who shamelessly steal our money, ruin our institutions and demand that we give way on the road when their entourage passes. Santiago is refreshingly different.

No blind loyalty

But our admiration and support for Santiago is not unconditional. We will withdraw our support for him the moment he changes his political style.

We will also not transfer our support for him to his sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, secretaries or whoever he wants to groom. They will have to earn our support.

Likewise, our support is not automatically transferrable to his party, DAP or his coalition, PH.

The era that you can put a cow on a DAP ticket and win — or put a songkok on an Umno ticket and win — is over for me and many in my generation.

Santiago won P110 Klang with 98,279 votes, that is 77.34% of the 127,074 valid votes cast. He beat his nearest rival, from MCA (who received only 19,506 votes) with a whopping margin of 78,773 votes.

If DAP fields someone else other than Santiago, how many votes will he or she get? I thank Gan Ee Chai, a Klangite of the older generation and his friends whom I don’t know, for giving us a scientific projection.

How the votes might go

The survey by Pertubuhan Akademi Pendidikan Demokrasi & Kewarganegaraan Malaysia (Apdk) polled 401 respondents from all 56 polling districts in Klang, with a 5% margin of error.

It showed that even if Santiago is nominated as candidate, he would only get 41.9% support while 7.0% would support PN and 2.5% would support MCA. Strikingly, 43.4% have not decided and 5.2% had decided not to vote.

If PH fields V Ganabatirau or Ean Yong Hian Wah as rumoured, PH’s support would drop to 29.2% and 30.4% respectively, while those who have not decided would rise to 55.9% and 55.1% respectively.

This suggests that the PH-DAP base has now shrunk to only 30%, regardless of which candidate is fielded, from the height of 77% in 2018. Santiago can swing another 10%, with his personal following.

The undecided group was highest among those in the 18-20 and 21-30 age groups, ranging from 58-59% if Santiago is the candidate to 66-70% if either of the other two is fielded.

The majority of my generation has not made up their minds who to vote for or whether to vote at all. The right candidate can win 10% extra votes for PH-DAP.

Any long-time MPs making way?

Is Klang so safe that PH-DAP wants to just dump a popular candidate? The bigger question is: do voters have a say in how candidates are selected?

If the answer is yes, but DAP’s candidate is not Santiago, would Gobind, Loke, Lim, Kula and Nga care to tell us why? If the new candidate is stronger than Santiago, please tell us the criteria he or she was chosen.

If three-term Santiago should give way to a new talent, please tell us if Tan Kok Wai (eight terms), Fong Kui Lun (seven terms), Guan Eng (six terms) and Teresa Kok (five terms) are also making way for younger candidates?

I hope DAP will be able to convince me to vote for PH, if it is not Santiago.

I will definitely vote come Nov 19. I will not let just strangers decide the fate of my constituency and my country. But don’t count on me to vote blindly for a party symbol.

I am proudly an independent-thinking Undi18 voter. - FMT

Lau Wei Zhong is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.