UNTIL RURAL MALAYS WAKE UP, EXTREMISM ARE WHAT THEY WANT.

Anwar Should Stop Wasting Time – Conservative Malays Love Dirty Water, Poverty, Racism, Extremism & Corruption

Anwar Ibrahim had been talking about the importance of good governance, political stability, economic growth, trustworthy leadership, anti-corruption and whatnot during his political rally in the just concluded six state elections. He spent most of his time in the rural Malay-majority areas, hoping to win their votes.

The prime minister begged the people of Kelantan to rise up and make changes to enable the state, which has been under the clueless and incompetent PAS Islamic party’s rule almost uninterrupted since 1959, to enjoy development and progress. Promising not to marginalise Kelantan, he approved a staggering RM1.5 billion allocation to overcome the state’s water supply problems.

Kedah, another state under the control of Opposition Perikatan Nasional, saw a jaw-dropping RM3 billion allocated by the Anwar administration to improve “paddy yields” production in an effort to increase farmers’ monthly income. Anwar told the Malay community that he was committed to improving the livelihood of farmers, fishermen and rubber smallholders.

In Terengganu, as Chief Minister Ahmad Samsuri and his wife were happily honeymooning in New Zealand, leaving 40,000 flood victims to fend for themselves, PM Anwar Ibrahim was the top leader who rushed to visit the flood-hit areas. The federal government immediately allocated RM100 million to opposition states Kelantan and Terengganu, with a promise to provide extra funds for disaster management.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the premier cared more about the welfare of the Malays in the opposition states than his own Pakatan Harapan-ruled states such as Selangor, Penang and Negeri Sembilan. The charismatic Anwar thought the Malays would appreciate what he had done to the community, in spite of lies and fake news spread by the opposition to demonise him.

Yet, despite his best effort to demonstrate that he was more Malay than racist bigot Muhyiddin Yassin (president of Bersatu) and more Islamic than religious extremist Hadi Awang (president of PAS), Anwar Ibrahim has failed spectacularly in the six state elections. The poster boy was unable to convince conservative Malay-Muslim voter base to support his unity government.

Selangor, the crown jewel of Anwar-led Pakatan Harapan coalition, saw the opposition bloc increased its share of seats from five in the previous election to 22, effectively denied the ruling coalition its two-thirds majority. In Penang, the opposition Perikatan Nasional won 11 seats, up from one in the previous vote. Even in Negeri Sembilan, it won five seats, up from zero in the last election.

PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) won all the 32 seats in the Terengganu state legislative assembly. That’s an improvement from the 22 seats that the radical party captured in the 2018 General Election. UMNO was totally wiped out, allowing all the 32 state seats and all 8 parliamentary seats to be     controlled by Perikatan.

Terengganu, recorded the highest voter turnout out of all six states, was captured by PAS largely due to the massive young Malay voters who returned home to vote. Likewise, it was a landslide victory in Kelantan after PAS lost only two of the 45 seats it contested. The Perikatan Nasional also successfully captured a two-thirds majority in Kedah to form the state government.

To make matters worse, the results of early voting from military camps showed up to 80% military voters overwhelmingly supported Perikatan Nasional in Terengganu. Previously, military camps or police quarters have often been viewed as strongholds of the government of the day – the “fixed deposit”. Despite PM Anwar’s commitment to improve the welfare of the armed forces, military camps chose to vote against him.

Mr Anwar should stop wasting time and resources trying to charm the stubborn and gullible conservative Malays. He can’t convert the converted, especially when those converted were being brainwashed with racist hatred, xenophobia, Malay supremacy and all forms of bigotry. The PM should realize that he can’t win the contest by trying to be more Malay and Muslim than Bersatu and PAS.

If the prime minister still doesn’t understand it, he is stupider than he looks. The people of Kelantan actually don’t mind digging wells for water supply. In fact, they just love drinking murky water. That explains why the Malay-Muslims in the state have been religiously voting for PAS since 1959. They actually believe the Islamic party holds the ticket to heaven, with the promise of “72 virgins” in the afterlife.

The conservative Malays in Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah, as well as Perlis, don’t really care about infrastructure facilities and development. They don’t understand economic issues such as rising prices, slowing growth, and the weakening Ringgit currency. That’s why they worship Kedah Chief Minister Sanusi like a God even though he, like all other PAS leaders, doesn’t know anything about economics.