SG PETANI – Pakatan Harapan (PH) and its allies in the unity government should not overreact to the fact that many young Malaysians who cast their votes for the first time thanks to the Undi 18 policy opted to support rival Perikatan Nasional (PN) instead.
Describing it as a natural process, PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli said PH must bear the blame of not engaging the youngsters well enough earlier.
He said data from the last general election held in November last year showed that PH got majority support from elderly voters – those aged 50 and above – for the first time ever.
“Why? Well, the reform cadres have all grown old like me. The struggle to reform the country is now over twenty years old and our generation has aged,” he said.
The generation that came after was not made aware of the struggles and instead became prone to the emotions driven by race and religion by PN.
He said PH must try to counter such narratives instead of banning those aged 18 to 21 from voting.
The Pandan MP and economy minister was commenting on calls from Kedah PKR to the Election Commission to amend the voting age back to 21 on grounds that those aged 18 to 20 may be immature to understand their voting rights,
The Undi 18 law, which lowered the age for voting from 21 to 18, was passed in Parliament in 2019 and put into force in December 2021.
Speaking at a Penang and Kedah PKR convention on the impending state elections at SP Plaza here, Rafizi said that the Undi 18 group can be courted by conveying the right message and using TikTok for better reach.
He also said that negotiations for the six states’ elections will begin in earnest after Chinese New Year and he hopes to wrap it up by March.
In Kedah, despite the fact that PH lost all of its parliamentary seats except for Sg Petani, Rafizi said that there is hope to make a comeback although PN is highly confident of capturing the majority of the 36 state seats.
“PAS is a party in an echo chamber. After screaming aloud, they believe their own echo,” he said, referring to the Islamic party’s use of religion to sway sentiments.
They are intentionally driving the party from the harsh realities of daily life, made worse by an economy riddled with corruption under the previous government, he said.
He claimed that voters are aware that PAS was previously in two national governments but did not do anything to address living costs and unemployment.
Rafizi also said that Kedah PH plans to begin negotiations by claiming five state seats, which have been traditionally won and defended by the coalition since 2008.
Meanwhile, former Kedah Amanah chairman Datuk Phahrolrazi Mohd Zawawi, who is also a former Kedah PAS leader, has disclosed his intention to join PKR soon to help PH in the coming state election.
Phahrolrazi, who is Alor Mengkudu assemblyman, was met at the PKR event here in Sg Petani where he confirmed his intentions.
He had a fallout with Amanah in the last election after he protested the surrendering of the Jerai parliamentary seat to DAP. – The Vibes, January 15, 2023
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