Separate state polls in Penang good for Harapan, DAP and rakyat

 

As Penang DAP, which helms the state government, tries to persuade the national party leadership to allow Penang to join Perak, Perlis and Pahang (instead of Selangor and the three PAS states) in having simultaneous federal-state elections, allow me to present the case for the six non-BN states to go full term (due June 25 - Aug 1, 2023) instead of rushing for state assembly dissolution.

Penang DAP offers two arguments to join the BN states for early election:

a) based on party interest, ie, it is safer for Pakatan Harapan to retain the Penang state government;

b) based on public interest, ie, that it is wasteful to have a separate state election.

Pros of separate state polls for Penang Harapan, DAP

1. Mid-term election effect

As voters' moods change by weeks if not by months, separate federal and state elections capture different moods of voters at different times. This is why America's opposition party (the one that lost the last presidential election) tends to do well in their mid-term election, because the president's honeymoon period will not last for two years.

Put in Malaysia's context, if BN wins the 15th general election (GE15), by the time the six Harapan and PAS states go for their own election, BN may have worn out the voters' support and they are likely to do worse. By this logic, Harapan will be disadvantaged in a later state election only if Harapan wins GE15. Is DAP so confident of Harapan winning GE15?

2. Opportunity to identify and work on 'black areas' from the GE15 result

Because our parliamentary and state elections use the same electoral rolls with the same division of polling districts, any state government will get to identify their 'black areas' from the GE15 result and do the necessary repair or reinforcement in the next eight to nine months. Like students can learn from their mistakes in the semester exams to do better in the final exam, this can only benefit Harapan!

If the two other Harapan states and the three PAS states can benefit from a longer preparation, but Penang cannot, what message is Penang DAP sending to the state and national electorate?

Interestingly, the reason Penang DAP gives for such an urgent need to join BN states is that it is worried about the performance of PKR and Amanah. Are PKR and Amanah so weak that they cannot improve their performance even with the extra eight to nine months?

How Penangites will benefit

Harapan has been arguing for months that having GE15 in the flood season is bad.

If the Harapan and PAS states don't follow suit, it would be only the resources and attention of the federal government and BN-three states to be diverted from flood mitigation and relief to election.

With Penang joining in for #UndiBanjir, then more of the resources and attention of the state government would be transferred from flood mitigation and relief to election, how can this benefit Penangites?

The excuse given is that this would save monies spent on having a separate election.

This sounds as if Penangites are so patriotic that they rather save federal monies than have their own state government paying more attention to them amidst the floods.

The estimated additional cost of having separate state polls is RM1 billion, but that includes the four states that just had their state elections in 2020-2022: Sabah, Malacca, Sarawak and Johor.

So, what is the share that Penang can save for Malaysia by risking under-preparation for floods? If we go by the percentage of parliamentary constituencies, the basis of how simultaneous election is organised, Penang's 13 parliamentary seats are only six percent of 222.

Should Penangites be so national-minded to risk themselves to save six percent for Malaysia?

Lastly, my warm congratulations to Selangor, and likely also Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Negeri Sembilan for sticking to their guns in not dissolving their state legislature assemblies now just to have simultaneous federal-state elections. That reflects the wisdom of both Harapan and Perikatan Nasional/PAS. - Mkini

---

WONG CHIN HUAT is an Essex-trained political scientist at Sunway University working on political institutions and group conflicts. Mindful of humans’ self-interest motivation while pursuing a better world, he is a principled opportunist.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.