Voting Trends in Bukit Selambau By-Election Malaysia1
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CSCanada.net: E-Journals (Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture,... Canadian Social Science Vol.5 No.4 2009 ISSN 1712-8056 08/31/2009 E-mail；[email protected]; [email protected] Voting Trends in Bukit Selambau By-Election 1 Malaysia LES TENDANCES DE VOTE DE L’ÉLECTION PARTIELLE À BUKIT SELAMBAU EN MALAISIE Zaherawati Zakaria2 Zaliha Hj Hussin3 Nazni Noordin4 Mohd Zool Hilmie Mohamed Sawal5 Azrul Shahimy Mohd Yusof6 Kamaruzaman Jusoff (Corresponding author)7 Abstract: The Bukit Selambau by-election was due to the previous ADUN’s of Bukit Selambau, YB.V Arumugam’s resignation and this had caused SPR to supervise another by-election on the 7th of April 2009. The local population had shown the tendency to support the People’s Coalition (PR) rather than side with the Barisan Nasional (BN). The objectives of this research are to identify the voting trends of Bukit Selambau by- election and to determine the most trends influencing the voting pattern in this by-election. The findings on the observations and interviews that were done concluded that the candidates’ ethnicity, religion, and age played an important role in the Bukit Selambau by-election. As a result, the PR had won even 1 This project is funded by Institute of Quality and Academic Leadersship, UiTM Shaha Alam (sponsoring information). 2 Faculty of Administrative Science & Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, P. O Box 187, 08400 Merbok, Kedah Malaysia. Email: [email protected] 3 Faculty of Administrative Science & Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, P. O Box 187, 08400 Merbok, Kedah. Malaysia. Email: [email protected] 4 Faculty of Administrative Science & Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, P. O Box 187, 08400 Merbok, Kedah. Malaysia. Email: [email protected] 5 Faculty of Information Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, P. O Box 187, 08400 Merbok, Kedah Malaysia. Email: [email protected] 6 Department of Language, Universiti Teknologi MARA. P. O Box 187, 08400 Merbok, Kedah. Malaysia. E-mail: [email protected] 7 TropAIR, Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor. Malaysia. E-mail: [email protected] * Received 5 July 2009; accepted 26 July 2009. 120 Nazni Noordin, Mohd Zool Hilmie Mohamed Sawal, Azrul Shahimy Mohd Yusof & Kamaruzaman Jusoff /Canadian Social Science Vol.5 No.4 2009 120-128 though its candidate S. Manikumar was not well known and BN’s candidate BN Datuk S. Ganesan who was very popular, lost the by-election. BN needs to remember that after the political tsunami that hit a year ago, popular candidates do no guarantee victory to the contesting parties even though there were 50.2 % Malay voters in Bukit Selambau. BN’s failure to take back Bukit Selambau should be taken as an lesson to be learned, in which a more ’people friendly’ campaign should be done later on. In reality, the Malays should stay together so that the political tsunami of PRU 12 will not take place in the upcoming PRU 13. The recommendations were made to the State Government, local society and future research by participating from all parties including citizen in process voting trends more transparency. Key words: Election; By-Election; Bukit Selambau; Voter’s Trend; Surveys Résumé: L’élection partielle à Bukit Selambau est due à la démission de son précédant député YB.V Arumugam, ce qui a provoqué le SPR à superviser une autre élection partielle le 7 avril, 2009. La population locale a montré une tendance de soutenir la Coalition du peuple(PR) plutôt que le Barisan Nasional (BN). Les objectifs de cet article est d’identifier les tendances de vote dans l’élection partielle à Bukit Selambau et déterminer les tendances qui vont influencer sur la plupart des votes dans cette élection. Les résultats des observations et des entretiens effectués ont montré que l’origine ethnique, la religion et l’âge des candidats ont joué un rôle important dans l’élection partielle à Bukit Selambau. Par conséquent, le PR a gagné, même si son candidat S. Manikumar n’était pas bien connu; et le candidat du BN, BN Datuk S. Ganesan, qui était très populaire, a perdu cette élection. BN doit se rappeler qu’après le tsunami politique qui avait frappé le pays il y a un an, les candidats populaires n’arrivent plus à garantir la victoire aux parties de l’opposition, même si 50.2% des électeurs de Bukit Selambau sont des Malaisiens. L’échec de BN à tenter de reprendre Bukit Selambau doit être pris comme une leçon à tirer, dans laquelle une campagne plus ‘’amicale envers le peuple’’ devrait être faite plus tard. En réalité, les Malaisiens devraient s’unir pour que le tsunami politique du PRU 12 ne puisse pas avoir lieu dans le prochain PRU 13. Les recommandations ont été faites pour le gouvernement de l’Etat, la société locale et de futures recherches, en participant aux campagnes électorales de toutes les parties, y compris le processus de vote des citoyens. Mots-Clés: election; élection partielle; Bukit Selambau; tendances de vote; enquêtes 1. INTRODUCTION Bukit Selambau was not a hard place to be described and it was near to Sungai Petani, in Kedah State Government. It was a normal area, with wide open spaces, and agricultural landmarks such as small farms owned by local residents. The composition of races was balanced; not one race was more dominant than others. However, to those living in the area or near it, Bukit Selambau was always referred to as an Indian territory. The number of registered voters for the N.25 Bukit Selambau by-election, information on the voting place as well as channels, statistics of the registered voters of N.25 Bukit Selambau and the percentage of races (as depicted on the 18th of February 2009) can be seen in Table 1. A total of 15 candidates contested in N.25 Bukit Selambau’s by-election and this included women. From the 15 candidates, 13 were independent candidates and they were Mejar (B) Anuar Abdul Hamid, Mohd Radhi Mat Lazim, Khamis Awang, A Jayagopal, Tan Hock Huat, T Chandrarajan, S Moganakumar, Husaini Yaacob, Abdul Rahim Abu, Venason Michael, R Loganathan and Mohd Fadzli 121 Nazni Noordin, Mohd Zool Hilmie Mohamed Sawal, Azrul Shahimy Mohd Yusof & Kamaruzaman Jusoff /Canadian Social Science Vol.5 No.4 2009 120-128 Wahab (Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya , 2009). A total of 874 security officers were reported to be placed in various places on the day of the naming of the candidates of Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) Bukit Selambau at Sekolah Menengah Teknik Satu, Sungai Petani. Based on the observation that was done at the naming of candidates center, it was estimated that there were 12,000 supporters of the People’s Coalition party that were made of supporters from PAS, KEADILAN and DAP that were vehemently supporting their candidate S. Manikumar, and this overcame Barisan Nasional’s (BN) supporters that were made of around 5000 people. This scenario had indirectly shown that the results of the by-election later on may not change at all, in which it may be in the PR’s favor as it was in the previous PRU12. Judging from the situation here at Bukit Selambau, the people were still in the political tsunami even though one year had passed. This phenomenon lead to researchers tries to identify the voting trends of Bukit Selambau by- election and to determine the most trends influencing the voting pattern in this by-election. In last general election in 2008, our country was shocked by political tsunami that changed totally the landscape of Malaysian politics. Due to some reasons BN lost to PR which is already predicted by some political analyst. There are some trends that lead to one party win or not such as issues (local and national), ethnicity, religion and age could influence the voters’ in their decision. The recently concluded three by-elections (Ijok, Permatang Pauh and Kuala Terengganu) have shown a noticeable change in the voting trends of the Malays and non-Malays towards Barisan Nasional (BN) and the opposition (Election Commission, 2009). Although BN managed to retain the Batang Ai state seat and the opposition parties, PKR and PAS, the Bukit Selambau state seat and Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat respectively, the marked change in the voting trends is something new compared to the March 8 general election last year. In the Bukit Selambau by-election in Kedah State Government, the scenario and behavior of the PR’s supporter were more extreme and fanatical than those from BN as they had heated up the setting by playing musical instruments such as gendang tabla by the Indians and the Lion Dance by the Chinese supporters from all over the country. The researchers had the chance to interview a representative from the KEADILAN, Encik Samy from Bera, Pahang who was very confident that PR would win again in the Bukit Selambau’s by-election. According to him, BN was no longer releveant as they were involved with national issues such as bribery and ISA detainees. Moreover, according to him, the Indian and Chinese do accept that the concept of ketuanan Melayu but not with the BN’s unfair treatment towards all races. Supporters from PR, BN, and independent candidates had filled the streets as early from 6.00am. Some had brought signs, slogans, mottos, and there were some who wore masks of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and other leaders that they supported. The presence of a helicopter itself had attracted a lot of attention.