Long before voters get to the ballot box, they will be thinking about the issues that will determine who gets their precious vote. But even before that they need to think about who decides the issues, and that in itself raises important questions.
Who decides what topics get discussed by our media? Do our politicians share our concerns or are they merely trying to set an agenda that suits them? And most importantly: How can we ensure we get listened to ahead of GE13 to make sure the issues important to us count?
Sometimes our political parties try to tell us a big issue is not an issue at all and without doubt the best example of this is hudud. Put simply, the Pakatan leadership is trying to make this “unexist” as an issue. This strategy takes form through different elder statesman from the coalition taking turns at explaining why hudud should not be an issue for voters at GE13.
For the most part it is DAP Chairman Karpal Singh telling us that hudud is unconstitutional, therefore it is not an issue. This argument spectacularly unravelled last week when PAS Deputy President Mat Sabu revealed his party would happily seek to change the constitution if it had half a chance.
Would-be Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim long sought to fool the rakyat into believing hudud was not an issue by ignoring it completely. His strategy was one of “look, this isn’t even important enough for me to comment on” but it too imploded just a week ago with his belated intervention that confirmed one important fact. Despite whatever Anwar and Pakatan say, they know exactly how big an issue this is for the people – and the people won’t be convinced otherwise.
Perversely, Anwar said it is only Barisan Nasional that is making hudud an issue and in doing so it is “clutching at straws“. As an attempt at turning the tables on BN it was brazen but unsuccessful.
DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng took his turn at ensuring hudud is not an issue by saying it is “business as usual” at Pakatan Rakyat. Again it only served to draw attention to hudud confirming that it will indeed be a huge topic for the Opposition coalition because, quite rightly, it concerns voters. They don’t like the idea that under a Pakatan Government couples would have to sit apart at the cinema, or they won’t be allowed to attend a pool party.
Corruption will quite rightly be an issue for voters at GE13 as well, but the Malaysian opposition media can’t help viewing it through a prism of partisan politics. Yes, the war on corruption is taking longer than it should have but the MACC is now more powerful than it has ever been and our special corruption courts deliver verdicts (and jail terms) within months not years. As Special Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jala recently pointed out, corruption as an issue is mired in the media’s non-stop demand for “big fish” when behind the scenes the cancer is being quietly cured step by step.
Race as an issue is usually encapsulated in the phrase “playing the race card” but who is guilty of doing this ahead of GE13? Look at Umno’s racism, says Pakatan Rakyat, conveniently forgetting that its very own DAP now stands roundly accused of Chinese chauvinism as it hounds and expels Malays and Indians out of the party. All the parties will be very careful about playing the race card ahead of GE13 because they know that if voters believe they are stoking racial tensions for the sake of a few votes they won’t be quickly forgiven.
In terms of issues that impact people’s ability to pay the monthly bills and dream that their children might have a better life, the economy is the big one that can’t be denied, downplayed or ignored. After all, as the PM reminded us on Friday’s Merdeka, we have come from “a nation of villages” to be a global financial hub in just 55 years.
But oddly, Pakatan Rakyat is doing just that. They are trying to make the economy a non-issue by not taking it seriously. Off-the-cuff policies such as scrapping vehicle excise can’t disguise the fact that they don’t want a proper discourse about the economy because they have nothing of substance to offer. No manifesto, no policies.
On the other side, Najib would like the economy to be the biggest issue of all. He would love nothing better than explain why Malaysia will succeed as a high income, developed nation by the target date of 2020.
Najib wants voters to be telling him what the issues are ahead of GE13 and that’s exactly what he is asking on a regular basis on his 1Malaysia blog. He recently did this for Budget 2013 and the response was overwhelming. Expect him to be asking for even more input in the weeks and months ahead.
Our political parties can’t dictate to us what the issues are ahead of GE13. If they try too hard to do this, they will be punished at the ballot box. Malaysians know what matters to them and what needs to happen next. Our politicians need to heed the issues that are important to voters because it doesn’t work the other way around.