While non-Malays tended to identify themselves as Malaysians, the majority of Malays increasingly identify themselves as Muslims first, over their national and ethnic identities, said opinion research firm Merdeka Center.

 

"Most Malaysians see themselves as Malaysians first, with the exception of Malays," said its executive director Ibrahim Suffian at a roundtable discussion on the politics of race in Malaysia today.

 

This was according to the latest survey by the independent pollster, which is scheduled to be released on Sept 5.

 

According to the survey, while an average of 34 percent Malaysians identified themselves by religion first over nationality and race, 60 percent of Malays identified themselves as Muslim first.

 

Meanwhile, only three percent of Chinese respondents placed religion first, compared to 16 percent of Indians.

Only 11 percent of the non-Muslim bumiputra identify themselves with a religious identity, over nationality and ethnicity, as compared with 43 percent of Muslim bumiputras.

 

"We first asked these questions in 2005 where 11 percent Malays placed themselves as Malays first. This dropped to six percent last week," he said.

'Race-religion cards didn't move votes'

Sixty-three percent of Indians see themselves as Malaysians first, while only 27 percent Malays and 43 percent of Muslim Bumiputras share the sentiment, respectively.

 

Despite this, Ibrahim Suffian ( photo ) said if the parties were to play along the lines of religion and race, they may not get a boost in votes during the elections.

 

In fact, he opined, the more the parties play up these issues, the more they were going to push the voters away.

Contrary to popular opinion that Malays returned to BN in the 2013 poll, he said, Malay support for Umno only increased by two percent, while overall, the party lost four percent of popular votes.

Most of BN supporters are 45 years’ old and above, while younger voters tend to support the opposition, he said.        

Malay support for PAS also declined marginally by 1.3 percent, especially in Kedah and Perlis, he said, adding the voters in Kedah voted PAS out as they were not happy with the internal fighting of the Islamic party.

This showed PAS's partnership with DAP did not substantially subtracted support in Perak, Selangor and Johore, he noted.

'PKR need non-Malay votes'

"Overall, PAS gained 1.2 percent more popular votes, thanks to non-Malay voters," he said.

"Thus, I think PAS will pay the price for its decision to unfriend DAP," he said.

PKR gained an extra 1.5 percent popular votes in 2013 but lost more Malay votes than PAS did, at 6.6 percent, he said.        

This has showed the party has become more dependent on non-Malay votes in the last elections, he said.            

He said the parties which rely on religious and racial issues in the past failed to gain traction in the 2008 and 2013 general elections.

"It wasn't so much that Malays felt they were under threat, but how the parties and leaders have performed," he concluded.

When asked if Malay voters who identify themselves as Muslim first would be affected in the next election if the parties were to play up religious issues, Ibrahim Suffian gave a negative answer.

Citing PAS's statement that it wasn't against the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims, he said the election result has showed it had no impact on the voting pattern.