Leaders of Pakatan and Barisan such as Amirudin from PKR (second from right) with (from left) Datuk Johan Abd Aziz from Umno, Gobind Singh Deo from DAP and Izham Hashim from Amanah will have to carry out a post-mortem on their poor performance compared to 2018.
SELANGOR Pakatan Harapan’s performance in the state polls came as a shock to many.
Most did not expect Pakatan to do so poorly that it could not even secure a two-thirds majority this time around after its landslide win in the 2018 general election.
The Pakatan and Barisan Nasional unity state government that will be formed soon will only have a simple majority.
Pakatan and Barisan now have a combined 34 seats in the Selangor Legislative Assembly while Perikatan Nasional, made-up of PAS and Bersatu have 22 seats.
Out of the 56 seats in the assembly, DAP won 15 seats, PKR (13), Amanah (four) and Barisan (two) while Bersatu has 12 seats and PAS 10.
Pakatan’s poor results in the elections, despite the state government’s 44 socio-economic programmes in Selangor, are indicative that a large chunk of the state’s electorate, especially in the Malay-belt areas, may have voted based on race and religion as opposed to the state government’s performance.
However, the big victories in the non-Malay majority seats, as well as DAP’s sterling performance also drives across the message that the non-Malays have rejected Perikatan and are firmly behind Pakatan.
Dr Khir Toyo says Pakatan’s poor showing in northern Selangor could be due to anger among Malay padi farmers there.
The biggest losses were in northern Selangor’s Malay belt state constituencies which come under the Kuala Selangor, Tanjong Karang, Sungai Besar and Sabak Bernam parliamentary constituencies.
In the 2018 general election, Pakatan won five seats in northern Selangor namely Sabak, Sekinchan, Bukit Melawati, Permatang and Ijok while Umno had three (Sungai Air Tawar, Sungai Panjang and Sungai Burong).
Now, Pakatan is left with only Sekinchan and Barisan the Sungai Air Tawar seat.
Out of the remaining seven seats Bersatu now holds three (Permatang, Bukit Melawati, Jeram) and PAS has four (Sabak, Sungai Panjang, Sungai Burong, Ijok).
Pakatan also lost several other Malay majority seats such as Morib, Sungai Kandis, Taman Medan, Sungai Ramal and Paya Jaras.
It will be interesting to see how the new state government will juggle between regaining rural Malay electoral support as well as rewarding the non-Malay electorate for saving Pakatan’s skin.
The new state government, which will probably be under caretaker Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari, will also need to digest the stark reality that having good socio-economic packages does not necessarily deliver votes.
Mohd Razali from PAS wrested the Sungai Panjang seat from Barisan’s Mohd Imran in the state polls.
Former Selangor mentri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo believes one of the factors behind Pakatan’s and Barisan’s poor performance in northern Selangor was dissatisfaction amongst the predominantly Malay padi farmers.
“Their yield has gone down from six to 10 tonnes per harvest previously to just three to four tonnes currently due to problems revolving around seed and fertiliser issues,’’ said Dr Mohd Khir.
He added this frustration and anger among the farmers could have been one of the factors behind Perikatan’s victory in the area.
“Just take care of their needs first,” he said.
A voter from Sungai Besar, Ema Mohamed said she believed the big losses had nothing to do with Pakatan’s performance.
“I believe people are disillusioned with Umno, as after pushing a ‘No DAP, No Anwar’ slogan in the past, they are now partners with Pakatan,” she said.
When met a few days before the polls on Aug 12, former Barisan Sungai Panjang assemblyman Datuk Mohd Imran Tamrin had said based on data and facts, as well as last year’s general election results, Perikatan’s claim that it was receiving huge support in northern Selangor could not be refuted.
“We are not in a comfortable position and will be facing a fierce battle to retain the seats here,” said Mohd Imran from Umno, who lost to PAS’ Mohd Razali Saari.
Mohd Imran garnered 13,401 votes as opposed to Mohd Razali’s 16,977 votes.
