An Umno Youth leader has pointed to an end to the fear-mongering of opponents as the way forward for political parties, both in the present government and Perikatan Nasional.
Federal Territories Umno Youth information chief Wan Agyl Wan Hassan said while Malaysia's multi-cultural, multi-religious make-up will continue to support race-based politics, the practice of "fear-mongering" as a tool to garner support must end.
This includes narratives created around the "Green Wave" or predictions of support for PN, specifically PAS, leading up to the upcoming six state polls, Wan Agyl told a forum hosted by Malaysiakini and Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall last night.
"I think this ‘Green Wave’ should not be a narrative to create fear among the people," said Wan Agyl, who appeared alongside incumbent Bukit Lanjan assemblyperson Elizabeth Wong.
Rather than resort to fear-mongering tactics, Wan Agyl said politicians from all sides should instead focus on common core issues affecting the people, particularly geared towards Malaysia's economic recovery.
He noted that "fear-mongering" has been a common "communication strategy" adopted by some politicians, including when playing up the "Green Wave" narrative to further their parties' agenda.
He said DAP used the term "Green Wave" to signal to their supporters that they need to guard against a wave of conservatism.
This was somewhat validated when soon after GE15, PAS leaders used the same term by saying things like "the ‘Green Wave’ is with us" as a communication strategy to build on the electoral momentum, he said.
"When the ‘Green Wave’ happens, there will be opportunist politicians who try to take advantage and sensationalise this agenda," he said, noting their presence in both the DAP as well as PAS as traditional rivals.
"Both parties (DAP and PAS) treat their opponents as bogeymen," he added.
Reflecting on GE15 results that triggered the "Green Wave" theme due to shifting support from Umno towards PAS and PN, Wan Agyl argued that it had happened by design.
"Before Wong and I became friends in the government, BN was attacked by both Pakatan Harapan and PN.
"Whatever issues they played up against us, that perhaps... corruption issues and others, I think that contributed between 50 percent to 60 percent of voters to shift their decisions to vote from Umno to PN," he said.
The panel on 'State Polls: How far can the 'Green Wave' go?' also featured Malaysiakini's Product and Innovations editor Andrew Ong, and was moderated by think thank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs’ (Ideas) senior manager Aira Azhari.
Both Wan Agyl and Wong noted the absences of two PN panellists - former Seberang Jaya assemblyperson Dr Afif Bahardin and Bersatu Youth exco Harris Idaham Rashid - whose names were promoted to attend but pulled out at the last minute, citing “unforeseen circumstances”.
The Umno Youth leader and PKR politician also addressed their new relations in government as amenable "working partners" but not yet as friends.
Moving forward, Wan Agyl said the practice of fear-mongering is unlikely to work as all major political parties, including DAP and PAS, would have at some point had experiences as coalition partners.
'Harapan supporters pragmatic'
Meanwhile, Wong said her personal experience engaging with Harapan voters in Selangor - dubbed as the coalition's front-line state - has revealed their more "pragmatic view" on the post-GE15 cooperation with BN.
"They know it is important to have a stable government. In five years (2018-2022) we had four governments, and that's a bit much," said the former Selangor exco.
She also claimed Harapan's engagement in Selangor over the last six months has strengthened their view that a majority of voters did not want the state to "turn into the new Kelantan or Terengganu".
Wong, however, admitted that PAS continues to have several strong bases in Selangor, built since 2008 during the party's time in government with PKR and DAP as the then Pakatan Rakyat pact.
"For two terms they were with us. They (PAS) knew our strengths and weaknesses," she said.
At the same time, she said Harapan in Selangor had, since November last year, made extra efforts in five or six "grey seats" - a term used in politics to describe potentially changing voters' support.
Part of the discussions was based on Malaysiakini's latest interactive feature that used GE15 data to simulate possible outcomes for the various coalitions, as well as allowing readers to experiment and make their own predictions. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.