Off the mark written by Quigonbond http://hiroblog2007.blogspot.com/ , May 07, 2013 I disagree with Murray's analysis. /(Murray Hunter is an Australian academic teaching in a Malaysian university)/
Firstly, the rural Malays are no less Malaysian than others. They are equally concerned with concepts of justice and fairness. Of course, the special concern is with food and shelter. Pakatan's apparent failure to win them over is caused by twin powerful tools of BN - control of mainstream media, and failure of rule of law in containing vote buying [I say "apparent" because if I were BN, the first place I would insert cimbs (Cambodian, Indonesian, Myanmar and Bangladeshi foreigners given Malaysian IC to vote) would be the rural areas where the electorate is less aware and thus less confrontational to see foreigners vote]. When you are not in the know, from what's right and wrong, you will be easily and unduly influenced by vote buying. The divide is not racial, the divide is not even urban-rural. The divide is simply between those who know and those who don't. Secondly, the legitimacy of BN's win is still in question, therefore it is premature to determine why moderates in PAS failed to win, and also why PAS didn't have the traction they've hoped for in places like Terengganu, Pahang and Perak. If but for electoral fraud, they have won instead, the analysis would be flawed. One point to concede though, and it is that Hudud and poor administration does not appeal to the rakyat. While the non-Muslims do not appear to be overly concerned with Hudud anymore, Malaysians may find it strange that ti is an issue with Malays themselves. If that's the case, then in days ahead, PAS needs to ensure that Hudud is finally dropped, unless PAS wants to leave Pakatan and go back to being a fringe party. If nothing should change after electoral petitions, there is no reason why the opposition cannot continue to campaign immediately. The desire for change for majority of Malaysians is deeply rooted (and that's a majority of over 1 million voters). An increasingly informed nation wants to fix the big things in this country, and is tired of anyone saying that Rome is not build in a day. It will not do to wait until 5 years before calling for changes to the way media is monopolised by BN, or how election offences can be committed in bright daylight without any enforcement, and certainly Malaysians should not let up exposing corruption, cronyism and abuse of power, for these were the reasons why majority Malaysians want change in the first place. Pakatan needs to stay engaged with the urban voters of all races so as not to lose their interest.
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