Again, my opinions. Feel free to criticize, I’m only like, 17.
You hate all sides in an election. You wanna curse them so much it transcends your existing 4-language cursing dictionary.
“KNN CBB Puki MAH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I HATE THEM SO KORUP SO KORUP!!!”
But don’t waste your vote. Your vote still counts, and it can be done with a nice trick if you can’t really decide on a candidate. Suggestion? Make it a spoilt vote. Nullify it.
Why?
Several reasons.
Nullifying your vote indicates or shows:
- people are still willing to vote, despite not supporting any coalition at all;
- when results arrive, and politicians check the statistics, an abnormal amount of null votes will tell the candidates that they’re not on good terms with them, hence they might improve themselves, and service;
- a form of protest against the status quo of Malaysian party politics.
Malaysian politics hasn’t been diversified, it has never been so since 1968 and 1969, when the Alliance (de facto under Razak) launched a crackdown that effectively destroyed anything related to the opposition. Diversification in politics was killed off amidst the 513 incident (it has more implications than straining racial relations).
In 1951, Penang politics was split into 3: the Radical Party (under Lim Chong Eu), UMNO (under TAR), and the Labour Party. The Radicals won, UMNO gained no foothold.
In Melaka, there was the Progressive Party.
There was IMP at Johor, and PAS at the traditional right-leaning states of Terengganu and Kelantan.
There was the CPM, though in a guerilla war, still maintained heavy support from left-wing radicals until the mid-60s.
IMP became Parti Negara (PN), while there was also the PAP (under LKY) and PPP.
In 1969, the Radical Party became, GERAKAN (Lim Chong Eu). GERAKAN, PAS and DAP were the stars of 1969, notable GERAKAN where they became the first non-traditional party (aka. the first left party) in Malaysian history to win a state (Penang). But GERAKAN fell under the BN coalition shortly when Penang became terribly broke (14 percent unemployment rate while the entire central city turned to slums).
Traditionally speaking, in terms of party politics, the hegemony was formed after 1968 and 1969. In 1964 there were riots at Penang that led to the collapse of the Labour Party. In 1964, the same year, the Socialist Front was the alternative coalition in the 3rd general elections (PRU3), which promptly collapsed by 1970.
There hasn’t been a lot of change in political balance barring from the incidents between 1987-88. Reformasi wasn’t really impactful when it comes to the polls: UMNO won with a larger majority in 2004.
Has Malaysian politics truly diversified? Sadly speaking, no. Malaysian politics has not diversified greatly. Sure, there are improvements (we are seeing the rise of MUDA and whatsoever related to it), but MUDA is, in essence, a rump-party formed from some parts of the breakaway from the youth elements of BERSATU, while BERSATU originates as a rump-party of UMNO. WARISAN is another example, as a rump-party of UMNO but at Sabah (can you speak ENgliSh). Certain elements of the DAP originate from GERAKAN and MCA, which had BN origins.
Safely speaking, has the left risen as an independent power that could counter the right-winged BN? No, because there is no independent left-wing party in the first place, as said by the many left-wing monyets here. No, we haven’t broken the BN hegemony set up since 1973.
I won’t see the hegemony breaking until the generation that comes after Syed Saddiq. That’s all what I’m gonna say.