KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — Amidst the anticipation surrounding the country’s political landscape post the recently concluded state elections, analysts are predicting that Perikatan Nasional (PN) will chart a trajectory toward the far-right spectrum.
As the countdown to future electoral chapters looms, especially the 16th general election, these projections underscore the prevailing belief that PN’s trajectory may veer closer to the far-right ideological stance.
According to Fellow of the Institution of Malay Rulers Chair, Mujibu Abd Muis, PN has moved further right than it had been before the six state elections in a successful attempt to court Malay voters.
“The reason why Muslim-Malays are attracted is due to Umno no longer being seen as the protector of their interests,” he told Malay Mail about Malay voters preferring PN.
He added that on the other hand, many of them do not believe in Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) ability to protect Malay interests.
“Thus many of them especially the fence sitters and Umno sympathisers change their support to PN.
“In order to counter this, Umno needs to portray itself as the protector of the Malays once again and it needs a figure to spearhead this, which Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi can’t do,” he explained, alluding to the Umno president currently facing 47 charges of corruption and criminal breach of trust.
PH component party DAP will also need to find common ground with Umno to quickly convince the public that the two former rivals can truly work together and are no longer a threat to each other, he added.
Meanwhile, Wong Chin Huat, a political expert from Sunway University, agreed that it is likely PN will intensify its ongoing effort to shift towards a more right-leaning stance.
This strategic move is in response to PN’s unsuccessful bid to secure non-Malay votes through Gerakan, as was evident in both the recent GE15 and state elections.
Wong explained that PN’s inclination towards using racially divisive tactics will potentially halt if it faces objections from moderate Malay voices and encounters disapproval from political parties in Sabah and Sarawak.
These concerns hold the potential to weaken PN’s attempt at forming a coalition government, thus shaping the direction in which the political dynamics unfold.
“PN will basically move to the right. It realises that it can’t win Chinese and Indian votes with Gerakan, Bersatu associated, and PAS non-Muslim wings after its constant attacks on the minority.
“PN’s right wing move will only be checked by two things: first is the disapproval of Malay middle ground including swing voters and many Umno grassroots; and the wrath of Sabah and Sarawak parties which can firmly rule out any coalition government with PN,” he said.
However, Wong said that PH might have also peaked on the possibility of going to the right but the more centrist coalition has two options on how to appeal to the conservative voters.
“Faced with this pressure, PH will also lean to the right. It had two options in doing so: first is more cash handouts for Malay-majority segments like civil servants, police, military, Felda, etc. and second is restricting the non-Muslim cultural freedom in daily life, from alcohol, gambling, dress code to treatment of dogs.
“The minorities and liberals have greater tolerance of the former as long as it is rigorously and prudently done than the latter. If PH-BN moves to the right on the latter, they will punish the government with non-voting, brain drain, capital flight and general apathy,” he said.
To avoid this, Wong suggested that the unity alliance must work together to watch out for the pro-PN public agencies that are pushing for interfering with non-Muslim or moderate Malay’s personal lives.
Echoing Wong, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Razak Faculty Perdana Centre political analyst, Mazlan Ali said that there is no doubt that PN will continue to ride on religious rhetoric as its voter base is largely influenced by such indoctrination.
However, he said that PH-BN through the unity alliance must capitalise on that and make the brand of unity and racial harmony more popular to neutralise any attempt at more indoctrination by its rival coalition.
“The ability to capture the majority of the Malay support by PN will also give benefits for PH-BN, because the dominance of Malay majority in PN is centred around racial and religious issues which will cause PH-BN to be considered more ‘Malaysian’.
“This is the perception of Malaysians and of course, it will gain support from all races, especially Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.
Also commenting on the matter, Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research (NASR) senior fellow Azmi Hassan said that although PN has been gaining massive traction after a series of conservative tones of campaigning, he believes that the coalition will not go to the extreme right and that this is its very peak that it can go.
When asked whether PH will follow suit in a bid to win the hearts of conservative voters, Azmi said that it is not likely to happen because the image of unity and moderation has been the main formula.
“I think PN knows that the best way for them to go forward and gain more votes during GE16, is for them to go further right, using race and religion as their main ammunition so yes, we can expect that.
“Come GE16, even though it’s in four or five years, I think the sentiment that PN is using with this kind of campaign method will not diminish, in fact, it will be going on until GE16,” he said.
Recently, PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin expressed his gratitude towards the coalition’s voters who had played a big part in contributing 146 wins out of 245 seats contested in the recently concluded state elections.
He openly admitted that most of the seats that the coalition won are Malay majority seats.
Last May, an independent report revealed that the Islamist party PAS and its president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang were found to be the most strident in inciting ethnic-based narratives on social media in the lead-up to the 15th general election (GE15).
The report titled “Social Media monitoring of Malaysia’s 15th General Elections” said Abdul Hadi and his party were complicit to incitement by neither calling out nor restricting social media users from further spreading hate in relation to ethnic groups.
