Friday, June 3, 2011

Umno has lost Malay middle class support

Duh?! Tell Me Something New! The Urban, well educated and liberal Malays have been victims of narrow minded politics which is couple with fanatical sense of religion, cronyism, nepotism and utmost corruption while an alarming sense of Islamisation has been taking a toll on them.

Even Non Malays face disturbing issues with the alarming growth of Islamisation whereby politics is always controlled by the official religion and people at whole are subjected to the benchmark of Islamic morality whereby civil liberties, human rights & democracy is given no regard whatsoever. Moral Policing on citizens is encourage by the government and this is rather troubling urban Malays and Non Malays alike.

Islam is used as a Passport to bug the lives of urban Malays and non Malays alike. Islam has been hijacked by narrow minded and unexposed people who somehow influence UMNO.

By Shannon Teoh

KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — Despite continued support from rural voters, Umno appears to have been rejected by urban Malays, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Its latest country report on Malaysia said that the “decline in support may have intensified” among middle-class Malays due to Internet sites “exposing government corruption and political intrigues of individual members of the ruling administration.”

“Although voters in the rural heartland of Peninsular Malaysia continue to support Umno, there have been suggestions that the party has lost the support of a significant number of educated, liberal middle-class Malays,” the research arm of the London-based Economist weekly said. But the EIU also warned that “conservative Malays have meanwhile been voicing concerns about the government’s plan to reform policies favouring Bumiputera (ethnic Malays and other indigenous peoples), as they believe that the special rights accorded to them in the constitution may be rescinded.”

Racial and religious tension has escalated of late with right-wing Malays accusing the Chinese community of trying to usurp political power.

A few weeks ago, Umno’s Utusan Malaysia accused church and DAP leaders of plotting to install a Christian prime minister and turning Malaysia into a Christian state.

The Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) has also strung together consecutive by-election victories recently in rural and semi-urban constituencies with an increased majority among Malay voters.
But observers say that the April 16 Sarawak election saw an urban-rural divide which resulted in Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parties more than double its tally from seven to 15 seats in the 71-member state assembly.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is expected to call a general election within the year where BN will expect an improvement on the 2008 result.

He had replaced Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as Umno president in 2009 after the former prime minister had led BN to its worst-ever election showing, ceding 82 parliamentary seats and five state governments.

Regaining the ruling coalition’s customary two-thirds majority in Parliament appears to be the only guarantee that the Pekan MP will stay in power.

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