Pakatan losing Malay support in Perak

Pakatan Rakyat has admitted to seeing a slight drop in Malay electoral support in Perak, almost a year after Barisan Nasional’s controversial coup plunged the state into a crisis.

Ousted menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin said that, based on a survey, Pakatan has lost about 7-8 percent of the Malay electorate.

While in power for 10 months following the 2008 general election, the coalition had recorded a solid 40 percent backing from the community. Pakatan lost its tenuous grip on the state assembly last February, when three assemblypersons quit the coalition to become ‘BN-friendly’ Independents.

Speaking to Malaysiakini at his home in Ipoh yesterday, the Bukit Gantang PAS parliamentarian said the decline has been particularly significant in rural areas which Pakatan has not been able to penetrate successfully.

He repeated some of the remarks at a press conference this morning. 

“This is because the alternative media (has not been able to) challenge the (traditional media) like Utusan Malaysia and (other newspapers).

"So we reverted to trying to maintain the status quo…but unfortunately, BN has menggula-gulakan (given sweeteners) to village folk. (During) festive seasons, BN also made a concerted effort to meet the people in remote areas by giving a lot of goodies.”

Conceding failure in luring back support, Nizar attributed this to two main issues that are “close to the Malay heart”.

The first was the allegation that Perak Pakatan had been 'giving face to the Chinese and has become a stooge of (Chinese-majority) DAP'.

“(The second issue) is that I had committed treason with regard to the palace, to the sultan.”

This was a reference to Nizar’s refusal to step down when directed to do so by Sultan Azlan Shah, after Pakatan lost the majority in the state legislature.

These two issues are closely related to (Malay interests)…(these are) more or less cardinal sins.  I have not been able to penetrate (their mindset to find a breakthrough ,” conceded Nizar.    

How it went wrong

The same issues were raised by BN during the by-election for the Bukit Gantang state seat last April, which Nizar contested and won with a big margin.

Asked if the deterioration in support began after that, Nizar replied in the negative.

“As far as Bukit Gantang is concerned, I don’t see it as an election per se because it happened (soon)  after the (power grab).

"So I would interpret Bukit Gantang as a referendum by the people of Perak to show their abhorrence (of what happened).”

He noted that BN did not have sufficient time to harp on the issues at the time. As such, Malay support for Pakatan continued to be strong.

“However, it deteriorated after several months because (BN then) maximised the opportunities and resources available (to it)” said Nizar.

And (the situation was aggravated by) disagreement and bickering in Pakatan (which were blown) out of proportion.”

By this time, too, BN was playing up the issue of the purported ‘unity government’ between Umno and PAS.

It was the last straw for many Malay supporters, whose confidence in PAS - and therefore Pakatan - was shaken.

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