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An end to race-based politics
10/04/2008 12:05 - (SA)
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysians have outgrown race-based politics and overwhelmingly want the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition to merge into a multiracial party, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
The Merdeka Centre research firm said that Muslim Malays, who dominate the population, as well as ethnic Chinese and Indians no longer believe they are betraying their race by voting across ethnic lines.
"People are now looking more at issues like the cost of living. People are more practical in their considerations, and not weighed down by communal interests," the centre's executive director Ibrahim Suffian told AFP.
The phenomenon was seen in the March 8 elections, when the Malay-dominated coalition suffered an unprecedented setback as support swung towards a three-party coalition alliance led by the multiracial Keadilan party.
Keadilan's partners, the Islamic party PAS and the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party, also enjoyed solid support from Malaysians of all races who made a strong protest vote against the ruling coalition.
Call for reform
The Merdeka Centre - which polled 1 024 people from March 14-21 - found that two in every three voters want the coalition, which is made up of 14 parties representing particular races, to meld into a single entity.
Ibrahim said, however, that there was only a "remote" chance of drastic reform by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which helms the ruling coalition that has dominated politics since independence 50 years ago.
He said the party was still focused on race issues, while voters were less mindful of episodes like the 1969 ethnic violence that was a defining moment in Malaysian politics.
"A significant proportion of the electorate is young, most people were born after the 1969 riots and people's views are no longer shaped only by those events," he said.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has acknowledged that the drubbing in the polls, which saw the coalition lose one-third of parliamentary seats and five states, was a call for reform from voters.
However, he has insisted he has a mandate to rule and has rejected calls to stand down to take responsibility for the unprecedented electoral setback.
The survey found that the issues which dominated the polls, including anger over the government's handling of the economy and tense race relations, as well as crime and corruption, continued to concern voters.
- AFP
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