AT LAST! A REAL CHANCE FOR MALAYSIA TO MOVE FORWARD – DON’T FORGET PARLIAMENT HAS ONLY JUST STARTED – SO LONG AS ‘TIN KOSONG’ ANWAR & HIS NEW GOVT REMEMBER TO ACT SWIFTLY TO STAMP OUT RACIST & RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM, KEEP INJECTING MERITOCRACY & TRANSPARENCY – THEN THE UNEXPECTED ‘BABY’ BROUGHT IN BY GE15 WILL BE THE SEACHANGE GOVT MALAYSIANS HAVE BEEN HOPING FOR
Syahredzan: Unexpected results real chance for M’sia to move forward
Like most Malaysians, Bangi MP Syahredzan Johan is learning to cope with the shifting paradigms of the nation’s political landscape.
The first time MP has suddenly found himself part of a federal government coalition that also includes the one-time dominant BN.
However, as the DAP man told Malaysiakini in an exclusive interview, he views the unexpected 15th general election results as a real opportunity for Malaysia to move forward from its long-time quagmire.
“It’s a major shift in our politics. You’re talking about arch-enemies now working together. As for ourselves, we have been demonised by our political rivals and are still demonised, but at the very least, one of the political rivals is now with us in government. So, that sort of attack has lessened considerably.
“Of course, at the same time, we have also gone on the attack numerous times. In fact, if you look at my campaigns, a lot of it was about taking on Umno.
“But now that we have this situation with Pakatan Harapan, BN and others allied in a unity government, it gives the opportunity for us to actually reset our political discourse and framework,” he said.
Syahredzan expressed the hope that this new dynamic would see a shift away from toxic and divisive politics.
“Now, at the very least, issues will no longer just be racial. Of course, we know that PN has still gone on racial attacks but because we are now together with a new federal government, some of the attacks against this government have lessened.
“I think this gives us the opportunity to actually move forward with policy-oriented politics, where you’re not talking about race and religion but about policies, about issues. And it allows for more interactions when it comes to certain common issues,” he added.
He pointed out that in his constituency there was a shift away from BN more than 15 years ago.
“The decline is not as prevalent as at the national level. DAP has held on to this area since 2008. Before Bangi, it was Serdang which we also held. So the BN influence has waned considerably.
“My predecessors have always been open to working with people who are known to be from the opposite camp for local issues. So we continue with this approach even now.
“We have no issues with working with them in relation to people’s issues, constituency issues and so on and so forth. And perhaps, there might be less politicking in the constituency. And I will say that thus far after the election, we have not really seen political issues being played up in the constituency,” Syahredzan said.
New order taking shape
The 2018 general election in which Umno/BN dominance was finally ended was a seismic shift and yet the old order has fallen in a way without being clear what the new order is.
Syahredzan feels that people should not be afraid to step up and shape the future.
“I think we are going to see a more vibrant Parliament, with a bigger role played by backbenchers and MPs. The reason why I say this is that number one, the unity government has a two-thirds majority.
“When you have a two-thirds majority and a smaller cabinet, it means that you have a sizeable group of backbenchers and they need to play a role.
“This parliamentary term, we should see more robust participation of MPs both in the Dewan Rakyat as a whole and also in select committees, which I’m quite sure will be set up.
“Once Parliament resumes on Feb 13, I think people will give more attention. I think we’ve seen that because you can actually stream it live and people actually have Parliament going on in the background while they do their work.”
He speculates that moving forward, even if there’s no electoral cooperation between Harapan, BN and other parties in the government, the way that politics is done will change.
“It is difficult to have the same sort of attacks or the same sort of issues being raised or the same sort of campaigning method as before when you are already in government together.
“So, I think we will see a shift in the relationship between these different coalitions and, moving forward in the long run, I think that will be healthier for the country,” he said.
The rising green wave
Nonetheless, the fact that PAS is the largest single party in the Dewan Rakyat is not lost on Syahredzan.
The Perikatan Nasional shadow cabinet was criticised for not being diverse enough, yet the coalition is gaining strength in many of the rural states that represent the Malay heartland.
“I think we have to be worried. I would have to clarify that for democracy, I think when you have three major coalitions nationwide and also smaller coalitions in terms of regions, I think that’s healthy for democracy.
“So, you no longer have a monopoly of one and we’re not even talking about a two-party system but a multi-party system. We’re talking about unique regions that have different interests and also different coalitions. If you look beyond Harapan, BN and PN, there is also GPS in Sarawak and GRS in Sabah.
“In terms of democracy, it’s a good development that you have these different coalitions, but in terms of politics, of how we push our agendas and how we try and gain power and support, if you have a coalition which primarily uses race and religion as its sword and shield, I think that’s not healthy,” he said.
The Bangi MP said that while BN has also played the racial card in the past, the growths of PN and PAS have seen mainstream politics being pushed further and further to the right.
“It’s not healthy. You know, you have instances where during the campaigning period, for example, Christians are being attacked saying that they want to take over the country. There is vicious and malicious campaigning on social media and TikTok.
“There were deceitful attacks against me, along the lines of race and religion even before I was officially announced as a candidate. They already attacked me, saying that this candidate from DAP has gone to mosques and tried to spread different religions and things like that.
“All of these things show that at least this PN coalition feels that the way to gain power is through extreme racial and religious politicking. As someone who wants to see mature democracy in practice, it is something to be worried about,” he said.
Syahredzan said Harapan could not afford to run away from the situation.
“We lost two or three seats in Selangor to PN, but many up north. Of course, the biggest loser was Umno, but we also lost a lot of seats.
“PN is not something which is going to go away just like that if we don’t do anything about it.
“So I think now that we are in the federal government, we need to realise that we must deliver to the people and if we are able to deliver, it will take a lot of the sting out of the PN attacks.
DAP Malays enjoying visible growth
Alongside Bukit Bendera MP Syerleena Abdul Rashid and Bentong MP Young Syefura Othman, Syahredzan is one of three DAP Malay MPs.
Even though the party leadership is still around 80 percent Chinese at the state level, he thinks that things are slowly improving.
“I think my role in changing the perception is to show that look at the end of the day. Yes, I am Malay and at the same time I am Muslim and I am from DAP and Harapan. But if I’m able to deliver and perform my role as MP in a constituency with a large sizeable Malay population, then that will have an impact.
“Just because I’m in DAP, it doesn’t make me less Malay or less Muslim. And I think that if people can see that joining DAP is not a betrayal but a move towards open and progressive politics, that would lessen the negative perception.
“At the same time, at least in terms of this parliamentary constituency, it has been won by the DAP since 2008, so a lot of the Malays in Bangi have no issue with voting for DAP,” said Syahredzan.
He said that while a majority of party members may be Chinese, they now have increasing representation from other ethnic groups as well.
“I think slowly this will change the perception of people, especially among Malays when it comes to the party. It’s not something that was will happen overnight.
“I’m proud to say that we have three Malay MPs, which is more than any time in our history. We also have a lot of state assemblypersons who are Malays. We also have a lot of counsellors and future leaders, so we are at least going in the right direction,” Syahredzan added.
He does not think that DAP would benefit from a non-Chinese quota.
“The selection process from the top leadership does not primarily factor in race. I think the most important thing is the suitability of the candidate for that particular constituency. So that can also include the candidate’s ethnicity but at the same time, it’s not a matter of just simply doing it based on race.
“It is up to the collective wisdom and consensus building of the top leadership of the party and I think that moving forward, once we have a bigger pool of candidates to choose from, I think naturally you will have more candidates from other races running for elections,” he said. MKINI
Unity govt records 54pc approval rating, but miles below popularity of Pakatan in 2018 and Perikatan in 2020
A poll by Merdeka Center showed that 54 per cent of voters it surveyed were satisfied with the ‘unity government’ of PH BN.
KUALA LUMPUR — A survey by independent pollster Merdeka Center found that 54 per cent of voters it surveyed were satisfied with the unity government of Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN), compared to 25 per cent who felt otherwise.
The survey published today also showed that in comparison, just 31 per cent of respondents had approved of Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government prior to the 15th general election.
It also showed that 63 per cent of voters have ‘somewhat accepted’ the results of GE15, while 16 per cent said that ‘strongly accepted’ them.
Meanwhile, 15 per cent of voters surveyed said that they were ‘somewhat dissatisfied’ while 4 per cent were ‘very dissatisfied’ with the electoral outcome.
Also 13 per cent of voters surveyed choose to answer ‘don’t know’ or refused to comment.
The ethnicity with the highest per cent of acceptance of the GE15 results is the Indian community with 91 per cent stating they were satisfied followed by Chinese with 73 per cent satisfied and Malays who were 60 per cent satisfied.
Non-Muslim Bumiputera voters made up the largest proportion of those who accepted the GE15 outcome, at 83 per cent, while 67 per cent Muslim Bumiputera were satisfied with the result.
As for the top five issues that the new government should focus on, job creation ranked highest on the list, with 32.3 per cent of respondents selecting it as their first choice.
This was followed by the wage gap at 18.8 per cent, bringing back FDI at 11.5 per cent, more anti-corruption efforts at 9.8 and education reforms at 8.6 per cent.
Merdeka Center surveyed 1,209 respondents aged 18 and above via telephone from all states and constituencies, proportional to the population in each parliamentary constituency. MALAY MAIL