The Malaysian Insight

MALAY-Muslims in rural Malaysia have changed little in their perception of Pakatan Harapan, even after the pact has governed the country for more than six months, pollster Ilham Centre found.

The Malay community is still “suspicious” of the new government’s readiness and ability to defend them, especially their rights and privileges as Malays, the sanctity of Islam, and the position of Bahasa Melayu as the official language.

This attitude was observed among the Malay-Muslim community in a “post-transition Malay” survey by Ilham Centre which was commissioned by think tank Penang Institute.

It was conducted from October 21 to November 21 last year.

The respondents – 125 youths, men and women from various parts of Peninsula Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak – were invited by the researchers to share their views and feedback in a focus group discussion on the post-GE14 political developments.

Ilham Centre research head and fellow Mohd Yusri Ibrahim said like what other pre-transition surveys had found, the rural Malay-Muslim community were still “not so excited” about supporting PH.

“We found the same responses. They are suspicious of how well PH can defend their rights and privileges, and the positions of Islam and the Malay language,” he said.

In GE14 on May 9 last year, PH won 113 parliamentary seats to take over Putrajaya. PH-friendly party Warisan in Sabah won eight seats.

Barisan Nasional and Islamist party PAS – the opposition – won 79 and 18 seats respectively, with the rest of the seats won by independents and other smaller parties.

After some dramatic exits and resignations from BN, the former coalition’s seats have since been reduced to 39. PH gained an additional six seats following defections.

However, the fact remained that only one Malay-Muslim voter out of five had voted for PH in GE14.

In the Malay belt states of Kelantan, Kedah, Perak, Perlis, Selangor, Malacca and Negri Sembilan, over 60% to 90% of the Malay-Muslim voters gave their support to BN and PAS.

Shock, worry about power, privileges

Yusri said the focus group participants said they were “very shocked” that PH won and Umno-BN lost the general election for the first time in history, expressing worries about the country’s direction under PH.

“Although Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who has 22 years of leading as prime minister, has become the PM again, the participants said they were worried about policies PH would introduce.

“The older participants from the northern and southern region, east coast, Sabah and Sarawak were worried about Malay rights and privileges, the position of Islam and the Malay Rulers.

“Those from Sarawak also said they worried about PH taking over their state in the next state election; that the power held by the Malay-Melanau in the state government would be jeopardised and taken over by other ethnics,” he said.

But there were also younger participants from across the country who felt excited about getting a new federal government for the first time and happy that their votes had made a difference.

Yusri said the participants had talked about the troubles caused by the former Najib Razak administration, such as the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal, the goods and services tax (GST), the high cost of living and corruption.

“They placed high hopes in the PH government to take Malaysia towards a better direction, but they were also skeptical of PH’s abilities.

“They are not confident that PH can handle the issues. Youths from the east coast had this view.”

PH’s inability to make good of many of its GE14 manifesto pledges also did not help improve the rural Malay-Muslims’ view of the ruling pact.

Yusri said those who had voted for PH were more understanding that the government was unable to deliver the pledges at this time due to financial constraints.

But those who did not vote for PH were “very critical” and questioned the undelivered promises.

“To them, the government not having the funds and facing a huge debt are unacceptable excuses.”

Non-Muslims in important positions

Yusri said the survey also found that the group was split over the appointments of DAP leader Lim Guan Eng as finance minister, prominent lawyer Tommy Thomas as attorney-general and experienced judge Richard Malanjum as chief justice.

“They think these non-Muslim appointments will threaten Malay special rights and Islam’s position, questioning why the positions did not go to Malay-Muslims.

“They see these appointments as an attempt by the PH government to jeopardise the position and privileges of Malays and Islam.

“Respondents from all over the peninsula felt this way, namely the older women and men, and east coast youths,” he said.

Meanwhile, those who agreed with the appointments felt Lim’s appointment could be accepted due to his good track record as Penang chief minister from 2008 to last year, Yusri said.

The focus group participants from the east coast, northern and southern regions also said the official language was “threatened a little” due to some issues in the first six months of PH rule.

Yusri said the participants found the use of Chinese in media statements by Lim on his Facebook page was “highly inappropriate” and was an attempt to jeopardise the official language.

Government matters should be handled using Bahasa Melayu, and English for some cases, the respondents said.

“They said it was a must for a minister, even a non-Malay minister, to use Bahasa Melayu to set an example for the people,” Yusri said.

He said the respondents also questioned the ability of other ethnic communities in speaking Bahasa Melayu, singling out the Chinese.

“They all feel the Chinese are not fluent in the national language, even though Malaysia has been independent for over 60 years.”

On senior police officers using English, the participants also said it was inappropriate when the focus should be on strengthening the Malay language.

They also opposed to the idea of Sarawak schools reverting to the English medium, calling it “illogical” and claiming it would take Malaysia “backwards” in its efforts to strengthen Bahasa Melayu.

But participants also said it was too early to evaluate if the language’s position was truly under threat under PH.

Despite their Malay-centric views on language, the respondents welcomed calls for students to learn a third language like Chinese, Tamil, Arabic, Japanese and Javanese.

Vernacular schools and UEC

The focus group participants also said there should only be a single-stream school to “form unity among the people”.

“Those from the central region said vernacular schools should be standardised into a single stream school.

“But they also admitted that the national school system has problems, which have also made them turn to private and tahfiz (Islamic) schools themselves,” Yusri said.

The respondents were also all against recognising the Unified Examination Certificate, which are taken by students of independent Chinese high schools.

“They think UEC doesn’t follow the national education policy and can jeopardise unity, lead to further polarisation among the different races and faiths.

“But some of the participants from the east coast, Sabah and Sarawak said they could accept UEC if the students are compelled to pass SPM-level Bahasa Melayu and History,” Yusri said.

To overcome the negative perception, PH has to work fast to prove that it is ready and able to defend the Malay-Muslim community, he said.

The least PH could do to stay in government for another term was retaining the Malay votes it had won in GE14, Yusri said.

“To keep and increase its Malay support, the PH government has to be seen to have the aspiration to defend the community, without neglecting the rights and welfare of other races, as agreed in the New Malaysia spirit.”

The findings of this survey is very similar to earlier findings by Ilham Centre. – January 4, 2019.