Perikatan Nasional chairman Muhyiddin’s religious remarks to voters in Johor by-election may ‘backfire’: Analysts 

IMPACT OF MUHYIDDIN’S MESSAGE ON VOTERS IN JOHOR

Observers whom CNA spoke to said that the controversy arising from the issue may potentially affect PN’s standing in the state due to Johor’s multi-ethnic racial composition. 

“For voters in Johor, as we know that they are in the urban and semi-urban (residents), their ideologies are different as compared to (voters) in Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah,” said Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research senior fellow Dr Azmi Hassan. 

Though Muhyiddin clarified that the term he used was “simply a figure of speech”, political analyst Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi of Universiti Malaya believed that the PN chairman’s message may backfire, given that the Pulai seat is a PH stronghold.

“It will affect the decision of the voters, especially the Chinese voters, who are angry, (at) how Muhyiddin easily used the word, linking it to elements of Islam,” he said. 

As a consequence, he added that this issue would negatively impact PN’s efforts to win in both by-elections. 

Prof Awang feels that this case shone a bad light on Muhyiddin as a lawmaker in Johor as he seems to appear as “desperate” to get support from voters. 

“So, this could have an impact on PN’s efforts to win as they are seemingly desperate to win the two by-elections while many Malays (supporters), whether they are PH or BN, are uneasy with the term that invokes religious elements,” he said. 

Dr Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs said the issue would churn out more non-Malay voters on polling day as they fear a PN win may hasten and usher in a Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS)-dominated theocracy in the country. 

PAS is a component party of PN. 

“The by-elections would test out if this sort of multiracial chumminess would still hold in Johor, or has it become more polarised in even supposedly more urbanised states such as Selangor and Penang where PN made significant electoral inroads,” said Dr Oh. 

During the six state polls last month, PN coalition made significant inroads in the state assemblies of Selangor, Penang and Negeri Sembilan, winning 22, 11 and five seats respectively. 

Of these, PAS won 10 seats in Selangor, seven in Penang and three in Negeri Sembilan. 

On the other hand, he did not rule out that the issue would have a positive effect of churning out even more Malay voters.

“This is because the gist of his message – essentially insinuating that it was religiously forbidden to vote for PH – would actually resonate with an increasingly conservative and religiously inspired Malay electorate,” Dr Oh told CNA.