BN 'made big mistake with early polls and media attacks on Anwar'

Another move that contributed to the BN's massive losses, said Dr Farish, was the decision to scrap the use of indelible ink, which had been aimed at curbing people from voting more than once.

Both strategies backfired and helped Anwar gain support for opposition: Experts

By Zackaria Abdul Rahim, THE STRAITS TIMES

THE ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition might have been able to prevent its election disaster had it let former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim run, a panel of experts in Singapore said yesterday.

Holding elections early allowed the charismatic opposition leader to roam round the country stumping for the opposition instead of being tied down to campaigning for himself in one constituency, they said.

That 'fundamentally flawed strategy' contributed to the big swing against the BN at the polls, concluded the panel at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University.

After his imprisonment for corruption, Datuk Seri Anwar was barred from holding public office until April 15. Thus he was free to campaign anywhere; he even gave a speech at a financial conference in Singapore last Wednesday, just days before the election.

The visit gave the government more fodder for the anti-Anwar campaign it conducted in the country's pro-government newspapers.

'Perhaps, for the Malay Muslim electorate, a certain sensitivity has been touched because this was a man who had been put in jail, beaten up by the IGP (Inspector-General of Police) of Malaysia,' said Dr Farish Noor, Senior Fellow at RSIS. 'He had been demonised in the media, and then there was this unrelenting attack on Anwar Ibrahim for four days.'

Voters in Kelantan and Terengganu receive only Berita Harian and Utusan newspapers, he noted.

'And the attacks in Utusan and Berita Harian took up half the contents of each paper,' he said.

'When you heap this relentless barrage of abuse on Anwar Ibrahim, without giving him a chance to even reply, the sympathy simply swung in his favour.'

Other members of the panel, chaired by Associate Professor Joseph Liow, RSIS' head of research, were: Professor Shamsul A.B., founding director of the Institute of Ethnic Studies at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; RSIS' senior fellow, Mr Yang Razali Kassim; and Ms Jacqueline Ann Surin, former Sun journalist and founder of the website malaysiavotes.com.

Another move that contributed to the BN's massive losses, said Dr Farish, was the decision to scrap the use of indelible ink, which had been aimed at curbing people from voting more than once.

'This immediately sent out a very clear message to a lot of the supporters of PAS (Parti Islam SeMalaysia) and the opposition in particular that there is going to be massive vote-rigging, so you better go out and vote,' he said. 'Perhaps, it made the pro-government supporters a bit more lax.'

The presence of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin on the campaign circuit may have also backfired.

Dr Farish said that Mr Khairy, as the Umno deputy Youth chief, is projected as a role model for young Malaysians, but he really epitomises the gap between 'rich and poor' families.

'(So), some of the PAS leaders were quite happy when Khairy came to Kelantan,' he explained.

Thus, the panel yesterday agreed, the combined anger of not just the Chinese and Indians, but also the Malays, hurt the BN.

'It is quite clear it is the Malay backlash that pulled down the BN,' said Prof Shamsul.

He added that while Chinese voters are touchy about language, culture and education, Malay voters are protective of morality and Islam.

'It is quite interesting that the Malays have decided that the BN is not good morally and it doesn't look after Islam, and that's why we don't want you,' he said.

Dr Farish said that the Malay Muslim electorate has rejected the concept of Islam Hadhari promoted by Datuk Seri Abdullah in 2004.

He said that ordinary Malays see Islam Hadhari as building a 'RM250 million (S$109 million) Islamic theme park', - an allusion to the extravagant Crystal Mosque in Terengganu.

He showed a photo of a poster put up by PAS outside the mosque, which read: 'Never before this has a RM250 million mosque been built only for tourists. This is Islam Hadhari.'

Another poster reminded the electorate that Umno had destroyed mosques in the past.

Dr Farish interpreted the voters' thoughts as: 'Why should we build a mosque just to attract tourists. We want it for us.'

Yet another poster, with the tagline of Islam Hadhari, highlighted the social ills that have plagued Malaysia's Malays: Mat Rempit (biker gang), teenage couples holding hands, gangsterism in school, alcohol consumption and smoking.