An Albatross Around The Neck Of Harapan

COMMENT | No doubt in the coming days, some folks are going to go over the granular data and attempt to spin the Umno/BN victory in Johor as pyrrhic and that situation for the opposition is really not that bad. The comfort would be cold if one were to go down that route.

Sorry Mohamad Sabu, but when BN got the popular vote in Johor, that’s the end of the story. The only people that matter are those who showed up.

Already the DAP’s Lim Kit Siang made the rather nonsensical pronouncement that another week of campaigning would have been a slap on the face for Najib Abdul Razak.

Good lord, another week of campaigning and I believe Najib would have another week to pinch a couple of more seats from the DAP.

When DAP’s Anthony Loke attempts to stir up talk about another MOU with Ismail Sabri, to deny the court cluster a shot at a general election during campaigning, how do you think this plays out in terms of projecting political strength?

Not to mention the DAP attempting to gain a political advantage because of the infighting in the Malay establishment. Has that ever worked?

Anwar Ibrahim made cosy calls with Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and got played. Does anyone really think that anyone in the Malay establishment would give the DAP the time of day after Pakatan Harapan rejected the olive branch offered by former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin?

Political stability

This has always been about political stability. Voters have grown tired of the political infighting in Harapan. The lack of leadership falls squarely on Anwar and the fact that he continues leading Harapan is demonstrative that he is the kind of power-hungry leader his critics paint him out to be.

In these trying economic times, voters want leaders who project strength and Harapan was skulking around like petulant squabbling children and made Najib an obsession which they assumed everyone shared.

The fact that some people still think that people who voted for BN voted for thieves and kleptocrats shows how out of touch Harapan and its base is with the masses.

Najib the felon on appeal gets it. In a Facebook posting after the landslide in Johor, he wrote: “The people’s voices are loud and clear. This is a people’s referendum. They want stability. They want prosperity and development.

“For BN, there was only one way, a return to the ballot box, we go back to the people. This is the principle of democracy,”

Does Harapan really think that the vast majority of the “unwashed masses” think that this is all about Najib? Sure, compared to the rest of the hectoring Harapan political operatives, Najib is likeable, but the reality is that Umno/BN were engaging with those voters who bothered to show up and in a democracy, it is the people who bother to show up and vote who matter.

The question Harapan should be asking is, why folks did not bother to show up and vote for Harapan? Why, if Harapan is on the side of angels, the folks did not get off their backsides and vote for them?

If Harapan’s policies were so people-centric, then why didn’t people bother to show up? Why would people rather sit this out than vote out BN headed by the court cluster which Harapan claimed was the existential threat facing this country?

If Harapan’s policies were so people-centric, then why didn’t people bother to show up? Why would people rather sit this out than vote out BN headed by the court cluster, which they claimed was the existential threat facing this country?

Instead of the Chinese community, they got a lesson of culture and morality from Tony Pua because Chinese educationists dared hedge their bets and “layan” Najib. You don’t see Umno/BN crying over the reality that people hedge their bets, do you? And of course a weird lesson in multiculturalism from a victorious Liew Chin Tong.

Andrew Sia’s piece asking if the Chinese are still angry with the DAP is demonstrative of everything wrong with the DAP’s strategy in Johor and indeed the national stage. Also, it does the DAP no favours. If DAP is supposed to be race-blind then why even ask this question? Do you think people do not notice this?

Politics is a “what have you done for me lately game” and if the DAP continues with the victimhood narratives peddled in the Sia piece, they are going to discover that the perception that the MCA is in ascension is coming true.

With each election victory for the MCA, the Chinese community will realise that BN delivers where Harapan just makes promises. It is comforting thinking that the DAP won the most seats in Johor compared to its partners, but understand this, the way back is long and arduous and each hard-earned step means closer to victory for the MCA. This is a political war of attrition, not a dumb culture war.

Maybe some folks who did not show up got tired of hearing the excuses that Harapan did not have the time? Maybe they are tired of hearing about the treachery of the Sheraton Move traitors and how Harapan, and especially the DAP, could not do anything against former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Failing miserably

Speaking of the former prime minister, notice how Umno/BN and Perikatan Nasional really did not give manure about the meddlings of the old maverick? The only people who seem to use the old maverick as an excuse are Harapan supporters and Harapan political operatives.

This Johor election result definitely lays the ghost of the old maverick to rest as far as the Malay establishment is concerned.

The only thing PKR seems to be doing well is promoting itself as the tent pole of Harapan and then failing miserably to support the other component parties in the coalition. PKR fought with everyone to display its colours and for seats but the majority of voters did not care.

Even MIC won three seats, which is a contribution to BN. And let’s face facts, MIC is the dead horse of Malaysian politics which people had given up flogging.

The MCA, meanwhile, profited from Najib and is slowly regaining relevance in the middle ground BN style politics that Umno is pushing as its main narrative for the forthcoming general election.

You know, when certain opposition politicians and their groupies refer to voters and who they vote for as “low class” and “ignorant”, how do you think this plays out in the real world? And for heaven’s sake, why are folks obsessed with Muda as if they are some sort of panacea for this problem?

First, Muda lost all credibility when they hooked up with Harapan. Secondly, Harapan does have young political operatives – if that is the criteria – on the rise but they are subservient to the old order. What they should be is an uprising by the young Turks, instead of this rather dumb handing over of power which merely means ideological continuity is maintained, which would not be a bad thing if the ideology were any good.

And here is the thing: opposition supporters always want people to give them the answer. You do not hear Umno/BN supporters asking what their leadership should be doing.

They know what their leadership should do and they campaign using the old model that worked for them for decades and could have been made irrelevant if the opposition did what it said it would do. That is the lesson from Johor - like it was in Malacca.

Every time Harapan loses an election, political operatives take comfort in the granular data and online support. Believing that securing urban areas with untrustworthy allies to maintain political relevance is not a long term political strategy, neither is believing that Umno/BN is not as strong as before.