Study: Minorities view Najib and BN favourably
Youths from Malaysia’s six minority groups - Indian Muslims, Portuguese, Baba Nyonya, Orang Asli, Siamese, and Chitty - view favourably Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his populist
approach.
Youths from Malaysia’s six minority groups - Indian Muslims, Portuguese, Baba Nyonya, Orang Asli, Siamese, and Chitty - view favourably Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his populist
approach.
This is the finding from a maiden study conducted by University Putra Malaysia’s (UPM) social anthropologist Dr Sarjit Singh Gill to evaluate the political knowledge and political inclination of the minorities.
The study on Minority Perception and Acceptance on the Ruling Party also revealed that these minorities representing 8 percent of the country’s 28 million population are very observant of the political on goings though they are not active participants in the mainstream politics.
A total of 54.2 percent of the respondents in the study observed Najib being the best choice for the prime minister’s post compared with PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, PAS’ spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat, DAP chairperson Karpal Singh, MCA president Chua Soi Lek, DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang and MIC president
G Palanivel.
Sarjit’s survey also found that an average of 82 percent of the 850 respondents would vote for the ruling Barisan National (BN) in the coming election, though a substantial number of Baba Nyonya indicated their preference for PKR.
“The minorities’ vote will definitely count in the 13th general election especially when looking at 66.5 percent of the respondents were registered voters with 53.1 percent of them having voted in the last general election,” said Sarjit on the minorities who were literally obscure in the country’s political landscape until the 2008 general election that witnessed BN losing heavily.
Minority voting power
The outcome of the study augurs well for Najib and BN, and coincides with the findings of an earlier study by Professor Dr Syed Arabi Idid of the International Islamic University Malaysia among voters of the broader ethnic groups published last month indicating Najib’s growing popularity since 2009.
Sarjit’s two-year research on these minority youths aged between 17-40 was funded by UPM research university grant scheme with the field survey conducted from June-July 2011.
Sarjit, who is also the head of UPM’s Social Science and Development Department at the Faculty of Human Ecology, noted that these minorities too hold political aspirations of their own but face difficulty in associating themselves with the racially divided political parties.
“The Baba Nyonya feel that they are closer to the Chinese but could not identify themselves with MCA, the same goes to Chitty who feel that they are closer to MIC but because they do not fit into the broader ethnic group they are sidelined by the parties,” he told Bernama.
Nonetheless, a significant percentage of the Indian Muslims (67.6 percent), Portuguese (41.8 percent), Orang Asli (74.2 percent), Siamese (76.7 percent) indicated their preference to be with Umno while the Baba Nyonya preferred to be with MCA (25.6 percent), DAP (16.3 percent) and PKR (11.6 percent) with a significant portion showing no inclination towards any party (46.5 percent).
The Chitty preferred to be affiliated with MIC (56.8 percent) but lament that the party is indifferent towards them.
Another notable finding of this study is that a significant number of youths from these communities, except for the Indian Muslims, rely on the traditional media like newspapers and television and not the alternative media like Internet to keep abreast with the current political developments.
They score high on general knowledge about Malaysia, contemporary politics and elections, and generally have a favourable perception on BN and government policies.
Their choice of the candidates varied according to religion, state and political ideology except for the Baba Nyonya who preferred candidates from their own clan, own beliefs and own state.
Mahathir still holds sway
Like the earlier study conducted by Syed Arabi, Sarjit too used Dr Mahathir Mohamad to benchmark voters’ preference and it was obvious the former prime minister still holds sway with 28.7 percent of the respondents naming him as the next most suitable candidate after Najib to lead the country.
Additionally, Sarjit opined that Dr Mahathir’s impressive legacy made the respondents choose his son Mukhriz Mahathir as a highly regarded youth leader (58.7 percent).
Mukhriz led the pack with PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi, MCA Youth chief Wee Ka Siong, Umno Youth vice-chief Razali Ibrahim, DAP’s Gobind Singh Deo, Umno Youth head Khairy Jamaludin and MIC youth head T Mohan all trailing behind with score below 10 percent.
Sarjit also pointed out that the minorities, except for the Orang Asli and the Portuguese, felt that they were an ignored lot all this while and the testimony to this is that no parties/committees exists to look into the affairs of Indian Muslims, Chitty and Baba Nyonya in most states.
Though these minorities who do not fit into the broader ethnic groups may have been ignored previously, they could well be the kingmakers in the upcoming 13th general election widely expected to take place in the first quarter of 2012.
- Bernama
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