COMMENT Too much focus has gone into the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections.

As far as the national issues, the political landscape has not changed very much. The 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal will continue to shock the nation. The political landscape has not changed, although there are attempts to equate people’s response to ceramah to their support.

The rural voting pattern has not changed either. It is different from the more educated and well-informed urban voters who have been won over by Pakatan Rakyat, and now Pakatan Harapan.

If Pakatan Harapan wants to win Putrajaya, it has to refine its strategy or as analyst Wong Chin Huat puts it, ‘Reconfiguration’. We all know that what works in urban communities may not necessarily work in the rural areas, yet the issue of 1MDB was still being harped on in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar.

We have seen this in both Sarawak state election as well as the twin elections in the peninsula. Pakatan has to reconfigure or sing a different tune when they are talking to the rural voters.

If I were the prime minister, I would not call a general election within the next 18 months. The reason is because the outcome of Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar would not truly reflect the sentiments of the rakyat as a whole.

These two rural communities, as we know it (I have mentioned it in my previous article), are traditionally Umno’s strongholds; therefore, Umno’s win is not a big surprise. Pakatan must be willing to lose these two battles in order to refine their strategies and win the bigger war.

Calling a snap poll would not necessarily mean a big win for Barisan Nasional. What appears to be the swing of Chinese votes in these two constituencies is not representative of how the Malaysian Chinese or Indians would vote in the 14th general election.

Time to recoup

Quoting the words of a Pakatan supporter, I can fully understand his rationale. “We did not really want either PAS or Amanah to win,” he said.

Although he was campaigning in Sungai Besar on behalf of the Amanah candidate, he did not mind BN winning, but hoped that both Pakatan Harapan and PAS would learn from the defeat and re-negotiate their positions.

“Hadi Awang would be too arrogant to consider negotiating with Amanah,” he said. “At the same time, Pakatan Harapan also need to look at its strategy when it comes to the rural folks.”

It would have been a different story if this had been an urban seat, and I fully agree with him, that Umno and BN would not have a chance to win the seat, not to even mention that it will win with a bigger majority.

Pakatan is in fact harping on the right issues, which include the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal which has already shaken up people’s confidence in Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Over the 1MDB scandal, International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC) and Aabar Investment PJS have managed to convince a court in London to arbitrate on their behalf. Within a month or so, we shall see what happens to both 1MDB and the Finance Ministry, and the country’s credibility. There is no escape.

It has not only shaken ordinary people’s confidence; even former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and some of his more courageous soldiers have broken ranks within Umno over the degree of corruption and money laundering involving the country’s so-called investment arm.

Most of us have already felt the impact of the 1MDB scandal. The market is slow, and investors are leaving the country. With the purchase of even paper clips, there is the Goods and Services Taxes (GST) that has to be paid. Subsidy cuts have affected the lifestyle of the middle income wage earners. Do you think we are ready to switch back to BN? No way!

Recently, Najib said that the country would go bankrupt without the GST. Bravo! This is not the way to manage the country’s economy. Instead of returning the money to the Saudi prince, Najib should now ask for the money back to help boost the country’s economy. Let’s see how the Saudi prince responds now?

Although we may not turn up in droves at Pakatan ceramah like in 2013, it’s because we already know the facts. Despite having receive many invitations by WhatsApp and emails, I have not attended any of the ceramah the way I did before GE13.

Most urban voters have already by now made up their minds who they would vote. It is about time that Pakatan ceramahs focus and target more at the sub-urban and rural areas. In some places, this is already happening, but more focus should be made within the next six months.

It is time for Dr Mahathir, former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yasin and other former Umno members, if they want to see a change in the leadership of the country, they should start campaigning in the smaller towns. People will listen to them, and a vote swing from within Umno itself would teach Umno leaders that they can no longer be arrogant.

Never underestimate Amanah

Amanah may be a young party, but its strength is in its leaders who are already widely known to all Malaysians except those in Sabah and Sarawak.

I had previously criticised Amanah’s decision for placing people and wasting their resources in the Sarawak state election. By now, they should realise that they would be better off to concentrate on peninsular seats.

They can also rock Kelantan, so that the state seat would fall back to BN to teach PAS and Hadi Awang a good lesson for being a spoiler. With that, they may be able to wrestle some parliamentary seats in Kelantan.

There are cases that I know of people in Sarawak who would vote for Adenan Satem in the state elections, but they are ready to vote for a Pakatan federal government. This can, and should happen, for all other states.

Amanah, as I understand it, is a totally different party compared to PAS, Umno and other BN component parties such as MIC and MCA.

Amanah is multi-racial, and membership is open to all Malaysians from different religious backgrounds. Former PAS Supporters Club chairperson Hu Pang Chaw, for example, is a full Amanah member, contrary to being only a PAS Supporters Club member and chairperson in the past.

This means with DAP, PKR and Amanah being more multiracial, this combination can rock the BN’s boat a lot. Umno and even MIC and MCA have been playing up more on the religion and race cards to win votes, and I sense that Malaysians are already fed up with this kind of game.

Pakatan has to come out with a clear manifesto of how they will run the country and start talking about being multiracial in their party composition. This is the true 1Malaysia spirit that only the multiracial parties can practice.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.