A study by Universiti Malaya Centre for Elections and Democracy (Umcedel) has concluded that no political party benefited from the 'Allah' row in winning Malay support.

Statistically, the survey showed that 77 percent of Malay respondents do not agree on the use of the word of 'Allah' in religions other than Islam.

However, the survey results released yesterday interestingly found that the 'Allah' issue has not benefited political parties much.

The study shows BN having a narrow five percent advantage over Pakatan in the Allah issue.

“The centre notes that in Malaysian politics, the difference of five percent does not give any advantage to political parties to exploit the issue for political purposes.”

“This clearly shows that the 'Allah' issue played up by the media does not result in a drastic change of Malay support for political parties.

"The issue however, resulted in strain in the relations among races rather than political gain by any party,” Umcedel said in its findings.

According to the survey, only 11 percent of Malays surveyed felt   comfortable with the usage by other religions.

Overall, the 1,676 respondents comprising 65 percent Malays, 24 percent Chinese and 11 percent Indians show only 58 percent agree that 'Allah' cannot be used by other religions, while 16 percent say it can be used and 26 percent replied they do not know.

The survey was conducted between Dec 6 and 8 in Peninsular Malaysia, and seemed to be an extension of what was disclosed by Umcedel’s director Redzuan Othman last month .

‘Which party would lead if polls called?’

In the same survey, the same respondents were also asked who would win if a snap general election is called, 32 percent replied BN while 29 percent said Pakatan, while a whopping 32 percent did not want to respond and another seven percent were unsure.

Of the 32 percent who did not want to respond, the study showed 64 percent were Malays, 27 percent Chinese and nine percent Indians.

The study also reported that out of the 64 percent Malays who did not want to answer which party they think would win if snap elections are called, 57 percent said ‘Allah’ is exclusive to Muslims, while 14 percent agreed that the word could be used by other religions with the remaining 29 percent are uncertain on the issue.

Umcedel further studied the political inclinations of the 57 percent of those who maintain ‘Allah’ is exclusive to Muslims, and found just 45 percent felt BN benefited from the issue with 40 percent feeling it benefited Pakatan, and 15 percent undecided, as reported above.

This led to Umcedel to conclude that the issue had not benefited political parties that much with no dramatic change in Malay support for the various parties.

BN on shaky ground

Redzuan in explaining further to Malaysiakini said the study showed that the 'Allah' issue had not changed Malay support much, as there are other factors besides the ongoing religious row that influence their political inclination towards either coalition.

Some, he said, could have already made up their minds without factoring in the Allah issue.

“A five percent advantage is considered very minimal compared to the detrimental effects of the issue being played up by the media and affecting racial and religious relations.

“I see this issue could affect BN more following the 10-point solution being made known, and the uncertainty in the federal government's stand.

"Pakatan's stand is clear that the non-Muslims can use the word if it is not abused,” he said.