PEKAN REMBAU, Aug 13 — Like most small towns in Malaysia, there seemed to be precious few young adults wandering the main street of the sleepy Negri Sembilan town of Pekan Rembau last Tuesday afternoon.
Many, if not most, would have probably left for the bright lights of bigger towns like Seremban, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore.
Since last year’s general election, a trend has emerged where young voters have been choosing to vote for Pakatan Rakyat parties rather than Barisan Nasional. A young voter demographic bulge is also said to be key in determining the winner of the next general election.
Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who is also Rembau’s representative in Parliament, was tasked by the party president with reversing this trend.
It has been, at times, a vicious war, which includes race baiting and opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim branded a “traitor” to the Malays.
That evening the Pakatan Rakyat was holding a ceramah in Rembau... so what did the young people here think of the raging battle for Malay hearts and minds by Umno, PAS and PKR?
Three shop assistants, Riz, Nas and Zul, who finally agreed to talk, looked like the sort Khairy would be keen to recruit for his Umno Youth movement.
Well-dressed and well-mannered, they said they read Malay newspapers papers such as Harian Metro, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian.
However, to them, they just could not see what the fuss over “traitors” was all about.
Their concerns were much more prosaic: the rising cost of living and a more peaceful environment.
“Look at the cost of things — petrol, food, everything keeps going up,” said Riz. “All this fighting between political parties, it is just giving me a headache.”
“What we want are leaders who are sincere, trustworthy and honest,” said Nas. “We do read papers, some things we agree with, some things we don’t agree.”
Zul, who joined in the conversation later, freely expressed his exasperation.
“Why do these politicians like to fight? Why can’t they just get along and live in peace,” he said.
Later, down the road, Yus, a young, struggling entrepreneur with his wife and toddler in tow, agreed to share his views.
“I am going to be direct,” he told The Malaysian Insider. “I think the prime minister is okay but the people below him are causing problems. They (Umno) can say what they want about defending the Malays, but I can judge with my own eyes what they have done. People like me they have neglected for a long time. I have been trying to get a loan for ages but the bank officers tell me that they give out loans only for government projects.”
“All this politics, it is just a game played by people at the top,” he said before getting into his car to leave.
It appears the younger set are not voting like their fathers.
For them, they want less talk and more action, especially on bread and butter issues.
Hyperbole such as “traitors” and defending the Malays seem to be topics for the older elite to pontificate and fight over.
Already much more exposed to the global world than the older generation, and with many sources of information they can turn to, they seem less conservative and less parochial in their outlook.
A chat with a friendly “pakcik” whose son works in a government media organisation appears to bear this out.
His opinion is that the younger generation cannot be “fooled” and that campaigns that use race to vilify political opponents appeal more to “old diehard” supporters.
If this holds true, then Umno’s current race baiting to win over the Malay ground could indeed win back the “old diehard” supporters who had deserted them last year out of disappointment. But it could cost them non-Malay votes, and in the end, put the votes of young Malays at risk as well.
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