A big chunk of both the Pakatan Rakyat and BN manifestos are dedicated to helping defray the rising cost of living in Malaysia - higher-income jobs, cheaper houses and cheaper cars, free healthcare, free education and lending a hand to the poorest of the poor.
But at the outset, both parties take a different stance. Pakatan views Malaysia’s wealth as being held hostage by an elite class. BN champions continuity of passed-on systems.
"Malaysia is a country with immense potential, its people strive for excellence bound by ties of brotherhood and fraternity," the Pakatan manifesto states.
"However, the power elite hinder our national aspirations. Corruption and greed thrive, while the people continue to live in hardship."
Meanwhile, on the cover of the BN manifesto, Najib Abdul Razak, who has been a politician for 37 years, suits up with a smart red tie and stares out from his gold-rimmed spectacles, inviting Malaysians to let his party rule on.
BN sells itself as Malaysia’s best partner with the iron-clad formula for chasing wealth and prosperity together, citing a 55-year track record. "The record of this government in delivering on its promises speaks for itself," Najib writes in the manifesto’s opener.
But as the only prime minister ever to very nearly let Parliament automatically dissolve, some doubt that Najib truly believes the runaway success story that BN’s manifesto sells.
"The manifesto reflects badly on BN because it points out the same problems that are still with us. Basically, all we get is an attempt to provide all kinds of incentives to muster votes and support from all segments of society in Malaysia," said Terence Gomez, University Malaya’s political economy expert.
Malaysia’s economy is trudging along fine with five to six percent annual growth in GDP (gross domestic product - goods and services produced) in the last three years after recovering sharply from a 1.7 percent decline in 2009.
Most economists expect the country to post five percent plus growth in 2013 too.
All just numbers
And if you look at the promises of BN’s manifesto - it seems the best is yet to come. BN’s manifesto promises it can create 3.3 million jobs, lower car prices by 20-30 percent and build 500,000 houses for the poor at 20 percent below market prices.
With Malaysia in such good hands, why the need even for an opposition?
In comparison, Pakatan aims are more modest. It says it can add one million jobs mostly by cutting back foreign workers, gradually abolish a car excise tax - a move which has analysts divided on whether it will actually lower the price of a car in Malaysia, and add 150,000 low and medium cost houses.
For both manifestos, "those are all just numbers and there is no way to verify it... They can just pick out whatever numbers they like,” Hafiz Noor Shams, a research fellow from Ideas said.
"Helping the poor is not something that can be solved by handouts and subsidies."
Who then really cares for Malaysia?
Under the BN manifesto, Najib’s job creation rests on government-linked corporations (GLC) such as Permodalan Nasional Berhand, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, UEM Group and Petroliam Nasional Berhad to draw in RM1.3 trillion of investments.
Oddly, BN’s manifesto has very little to say about reforming GLCs and talks only about a national trading company to source overseas markets for small and medium enterprises (SME).
"The single biggest reason for inflationary cost in Malaysia is the GLC behaviour backed by licensing and rent-seeking behaviour which the government has failed to address," Lim Teck Ghee, director of the Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) said.
By contrast, Pakatan appears aggressive. Pakatan said they would abolish monopolies from telecommunications to cable TV operators, from rice to sugar and highway projects and call for open tenders for government jobs.
Its manifesto said GLCs will be made to divest via management buy-outs (MBO) and produce more viable entrepreneurs. And they will back SMEs with a RM500 million fund to promote innovative ideas and inventions. Tax incentives will also be reshuffled to benefit SMEs.
Heavily centralised
In an unprecedented move, Pakatan promised it would increase the oil royalty to 20 percent from five percent for Terengganu, Kelantan, Sabah, Sarawak and Pahang - which are also the poorer states in Malaysia.
In a tit-for-tat move, BN has written in a similar measure in its manifesto despite its track record to the contrary.
Studies showed that Malaysia’s federal government’s share of total government revenue before intergovernmental transfers was an estimated 90.7 percent for 2006-2010, making Malaysia one of the most heavily centralised federations in fiscal terms in the world.
Education is one of the biggest concerns in Malaysia, where most parents save up to send their children overseas for quality education and they often don’t come back. Malaysia has suffered a severe brain drain over the decades as a result.
Pakatan plans to offer free tertiary education and make universities independent to raise academic standards. It has a plan for retraining Malaysia’s low-skilled workforce.
Pakatan is going to train one million school leavers without higher education to provide skills that can get them employed. Pakatan promises to build five technical universities and 25 new vocational schools.
BN's promises are broad and appears to suffer a lack of ideas. They will build more schools of all types, train and fairly promote 420,000 teachers and hand out laptops to students.
Another major problem in Malaysia is rising household debt. Bank Negara Malaysia reported last month that new loans to households last year represents more than 80 percent of GDP at RM166.3 billion.
What do Malaysians typically borrow money to buy?
Go to KiniBiz for more .
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