ONE thing for certain in this Melaka election is that nothing is certain.
With muddled alliances that keep shifting as rapidly as Sg Melaka during a thunderstorm, the political chess games that are being played are only aiding in discouraging an already fatigued and disillusioned electorate from coming out to vote on November 20.
With campaigning kept to a minimum – in essence, non-existent – due to Covid-19 protocols, the usual sights and sounds of an election are all but missing.
Flags and posters are sparse, and candidates can only hop on motorcycles and the back of pick-ups and lorries with loudhailers selling their promise. They are not allowed to stop and speak to constituents.
The dilemma of candidates is whether to sell the same old “if I am elected, I will do this and that…” or gauge the temperament of the electorate for the bigger battle that lies ahead – the 15th general election (GE15).
“At the end of the day, bread-and-butter issues still sell – flooding, poor internet connectivity, youth unemployment,” explained PKR information chief Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin.
These issues, he said, will always be the hook to get the attention of the people.
However, he admitted federal politics could be a larger factor for the voters this time around, which is why a delicate balance needs to be struck.
“Poor voter turnout could admittedly be the biggest problem for candidates,” said Shamsul, who is facing four candidates for the Paya Rumput seat.
Arguably his biggest challenger, Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Rais Yasin, is playing the same game, touching locals where it matters – the perennial floods in the constituency that comprises 55% Malays.
Malay matters
And here is the other significance of this election – as with its predecessors – the battle for the hearts and minds of the Malays who make up 58% of the 495,196 voters.
But this could be a confusing battle for the electorate to digest.
BN and Perikatan Nasional (PN) with PAS are partners at the federal administrative level – yet they are at odds in Melaka.
With Pakatan Harapan (PH), the distribution of the spoils of war is clear – former chief minister Adly Zahari will lead the Melaka government again should PH win back the state it lost through party defections in March 2020.
While there are murmurs among PKR members that the party should be given the opportunity this time, the PH leadership is firm in its decision on Amanah’s Adly.
Umno is sticking with its incumbent chief minister Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali, while PN is revealing its candidate only if it wins, and has opened the door for a discussion with Umno to form the state government if the latter wins – an unnerving proposition for an electorate already nervous and fed up with the political instability at both federal and state levels since March 2020.
Moreover, this is the second time the state has fallen in 19 months.
The latest was on October 4 when four assemblymen – two from Umno, one each from Bersatu and DAP – pulled their support for Sulaiman.
A total of 19 of the 28 seats are seeing a slugfest of Malay parties comprising Umno vs Bersatu/PAS vs PKR/Amanah, which begs the question from observers – does the anti-Chinese rhetoric bandied about by some of these Malay parties and their leaders still hold water?
If anything, the last three years since the watershed 14th general election have seen the dismantling of the long-standing sales pitch that Malay-based parties have a common enemy in non-Malays, especially the Chinese.
The Sheraton Move and the rise of PN, whose make-up had seen the exclusion of non-Malay leaders in the cabinet, betrays the current reality that the Malay unity promoted by the federal friends and state foes is a fallacy.
PAS is battling its Muafakat Nasional partner Umno, but both are in bed together at the federal level.
Umno, which holds the prime minister’s post, is still confused whether it is a BN government as former prime minister and PN chief Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin did not mince his words that this is still a PN administration.
With this motley crew of strange bedfellows, perhaps the electorate has already made its decision – either to return the original mandate to PH, which it voted for in 2018, or sit this one out and hand the state over to Umno by default. – The Vibes, November 12, 2021
Terence Fernandez is editor-in-chief of PETRA News, which publishes The Vibes and Getaran news portals
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