Master of the polls, ruler of the game
And that is the reason why BN continues to win one general election after another. All BN needs to do is very simple – they just look after the interests of these rural folk and maintain a sufficient number of these rural seats and they can win for all eternity.
Selena Tay, FMT
With the re-delineation of boundaries looming as a possible threat to Pakatan Rakyat’s chances of winning more seats in the next general election, PR’s strategists must give a thought on how to overcome the great population-divide. Largely there are two types of population-divide: a) the urban-rural divide; and b) the private sector-public sector divide.
First of all, the urban-rural divide. It is without doubt that it is the rural folk who had contributed mainly to BN’s victory in the 13th general election. A friend of this columnist who went to campaign in the rural areas had related stories about crime in the city and the high cost of city living to the rural folk but they seem disinterested.
This is because the rural folk do not experience the difficulties such as inflation, high rental of homes, inefficient and costly transport, burdensome loan repayments and other aspects of city life. The rural folk have their own land, they are self-sufficient and they can just travel by bicycle or an old motorbike from one place to another. To sum up, they are comfortable and the problems of the urban folk are alien to them. But it is they who decide the destiny of the city folk!
And that is the reason why BN continues to win one general election after another. All BN needs to do is very simple – they just look after the interests of these rural folk and maintain a sufficient number of these rural seats and they can win for all eternity.
This method is also applied to the urban-rural divide in East Malaysia whereby the native folk are provided with sufficient amenities minus the internet and of course they too become sufficiently compliant and contented enough to vote BN. Why not when their life is comfortable and laid-back?
So this is how easy it is for BN to win. They have perfected the game by fine-tuning the system from one general election to the next.
Truth be told, 65% of parliament seats in Malaysia are located in the rural areas although 70% of the population are in urban areas. According to Bar Council’s Andrew Khoo, in the 13th general election BN has captured 112 out of 130 parliamentary seats that are categorised as small seats. BN won about 2.21 million popular votes in these 112 seats. In other words, BN only needed 19.97% of the popular vote to form the federal government with ease.
Machiavellian policies
This unfair re-delineation is only known to a few informed citizens and therefore the Election Commission is bold enough to re-draw the boundaries to favour their political master. In addition to that, we must not forget about the existence of the public sector-private sector divide which is also becoming increasingly massive.
