I HAVE my doubts whether the unity government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim can win back the much-needed Malay support.
It is obvious that the green wave that started during the last general election has continued until today.
As I have argued previously, focusing on investments, job creation and other economic measures to create more inclusive political environment might not be sufficient.
Ideological matters cannot be reduced to economy. It will be naïve to assume that economic development leading to prosperity can soften the impact of the race and religion narrative.
Economic development might help but might not have much of an impact in mitigating the worst influence of the identity narrative that seeks sustenance in race and religion.
Some have suggested that Anwar should not pander to the conservative forces in Perikatan Nasional (PN) but again pandering will not be a serious effort to win back the Malay-Muslim support. In fact, it might bring forth a counter-narrative on the part of the conservative ethnic and religious forces.
It is not that PN cannot neutralise the pandering efforts by the unity government. Past efforts of pandering or moving to the right have not softened the blows against the conservative ethnic and religious forces.
PN leaders know this – and so, too, do those in the unity government.
However, a bolder move to the right might bolster the dominant race and religion narrative but might have the corresponding effect of abandoning the non-Malay front.
PH-BN has no answer
DAP might be the fixed deposit of the Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional (PH-BN) coalition but the concerted move to the right might even question the effectiveness of the party in taking up the rights of non-Malays.
Moving to the right will pose a fundamental political challenge to DAP to its future non-Malay representation.
The PN juggernaut shows no signs of abating. There is no such thing as PN has exhausted its political narratives. They are being continuously invented and re-invented in the polarised political atmosphere.
But yet the PH-BN combination seem sluggish in developing and sustaining a political narrative that is counter hegemonic in nature specifically focused on the cultural ideological realm.
The material realm might not be the immediate answer to deflect the dominant narrative. A counter hegemonic narrative is what is needed to counter the dominant discourse at the level of ideas.
But unfortunately, there is none. Given this, the vacuum has been filled by the PN operatives.
The question is how is the unity government going to develop and sustain a counter-hegemonic narrative to that of PN? What is essentially needed is a counter-hegemonic strategy to oppose the ethnic and religious narrative.
At the end of the day, the country’s demography seems to be in favour of the majoritarian community. Unless there is change in the majoritarian thinking, the green wave is here to stay.
There is nothing much PH-BN can do to deflect the narrative. – Aug 15, 2023
