Why BN keeps on winning despite mediocrity
One thing the BN understands is that in the long run it is the bread-and-butter issues that matter most of all. Many people overestimate the commitment of the Malay Malaysian voters on large liberal issues like the treatment of Anwar Ibrahim, ISA, corruption, etc. The fact is that these issues are distant to a large part of the Malay Malaysian population, especially in the heartland.
What the Malay Malaysian voters are concerned with is 1) adherence to general Islamic principles and 2) economics. And in these regards, the BN has been making all the right moves. The BN has been building its Islamic credentials and the nomination of prime minister-in-waiting Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will confirm it.
On economics, the removal of certain cronies and rise of younger and more qualified cronies is winning more votes. To their credit, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and BN have recognised the need for renewal while allowing others to feed at the thought of power.
Most people don't realise how narrow the opposition's self-interest is. Faced with very bad odds in political machineries and tools, the opposition is also bankrupt of real winning strategies. Even PAS with its very appealing theocratic message cannot have succeeded if BN did not bungle the way it did handling former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's affair. The truth is that Anwar is still a potent symbol because most people oiling the Malay political machineries know it was mostly about power struggle and neither side was clean.
BN — more precisely Umno — has unfair advantages and it is not stupid about it. The party is not very capable but it does not have to be. With its advantages, and despite the fact that it does not even dominate like the PAP in Singapore, shows it is really mediocre. What it also means is that all it takes is a bit more persuasion and less reason to win more Malay Malaysian votes, which even the likes of Umno vice president Muhammad Muhd Taib is capable of.
