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KUALA LUMPUR: Millions of Malaysians are expected to
not bother voting in Saturday’s elections, in a wave of apathy
that observers credit to boredom and a feeling of alienation from
the ruling coalition.
After a half-century in power, no
one is under any illusion that their vote could dislodge the mighty
Barisan Nasional coalition, despite voter gripes over rising
inflation, ethnic tensions and high crime rates.
“We should have a right to make
a choice. I’m not voting because to me, there seems to be no
choice,” said Akmal Hakim, 29, a waiter at a fast food outlet and
one of the young Muslim Malays who are the majority of non-voters.
Former deputy premier Musa Hitam
estimated that some five million people would not exercise their
right to vote, in a trend he said threatened “the very fabric of
the democratic process”.
“Some are not happy with the
government, yet don’t feel they should come out and vote against
the government.
Newspapers are awash with
flattering stories on the government, and television and radio
broadcasts are continuously interrupted with expensively produced
commercials.
“There is only one choice, vote
for BN,” declare the posters and bunting which festoon the cities
and villages of multicultural Malaysia, which is home to majority
Malays as well as minority ethnic Chinese and Indians.
“What is the point? We all know
who is going to win,” said a 23-year-old Malay taxi driver who
declined to be named. “But where is the democracy? Why can’t
we see the speeches of the other candidates on TV?”
The Election Commission said last
year that among Malaysia’s 27 million people, a whopping 4.9
million above the voting age of 21 years—70 percent of them aged
between 21 and 35—have not registered to vote. Some 10.9 million
people are registered voters but political researchers estimate that
25 percent of them will not cast their vote this year.
--AFP
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