Barisan Nasional has lost 80% of the younger generation voters.
Former finance minister Daim Zainuddin is pessimistic about the future of Barisan Nasional. He believes that BN can say it is comfortable but only in Johor, Malacca and Pahang.
But even in Pahang, a few parliamentary seats will slip out of BN’s grasp as with a few more state seats.
But overall, Daim believes Pahang will remain under BN, according to his alter ego, The Oracle of Syed Putra, with whom I recently conversed.
And if I am at liberty to translate the body language of The Oracle, Daim is also pessimistic about the political fortunes of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.
I am sure that I’ve heard the same disconcerting vibrations from former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself.
The Oracle said Daim’s exhortations to the two top leaders (Najib and deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin) to go down and meet with the cawangan (division) people went unheeded.
“Meeting with ketua bahagian can be a misleading source of information; they will tell of everything good and what they have done with a view to getting re-elected.
“But you need to go down to the basics – listen to the views in the raw (yourself). If possible exclude the ketua bahagian.
“But they (Najib and Muhyiddin) haven’t done this.
“The PM is busy with his overseas trip. The DPM will not move lest whatever actions he takes will be misconstrued as upstaging the boss.
“And that can cause some internal upheavals in Umno,” said the Oracle.
Losing battle
Speaking further, the Orcale said Umno and BN have lost their influence over the younger generation.
Eighty percent of the younger voters are not going to vote for the BN.
I asked the Oracle if he thought Umno could win the battles in cyberspace.
And this is what he said: “Just look at the articles being spewed by the Umno cyber troopers.
“Some of them are stuck with the idea that the PM of Malaysia is still Mahathir and so their articles will be tailored to suit the positions taken by Mahathir.
“You watch – Mahathir hasn’t spoken his true mind (yet) about the Najib administration.
“Once he does, then all hell will break loose,” he said, adding that one reason for Mahathir’s “silence” is the restraint counselled by Daim.
The majority of the Umno cybertroopers are spewing hate articles all the time with the expletives and vitriol.
Will these engage the fence-sitters, those independent-minded thinking would-be voters?
Thinking fence-sitters
You may think these fence-sitters and undecided voters have different political agenda from the rest of the population such as the rural folks.
But in the end, you may be surprised that they actually share more similarities – they want good.
“They detest and abhor corruption, they hate the carving out of this country among business cronies and they want a better future for this country.
“The only difference is that the liberals or the fence-sitters are more articulate and possessed audacity in thinking.
“They won’t be shy to speak their mind and translate their thoughts into votes” the Oracle said.
The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman and a FMT columnist. This excerpt is from his blog sakmongkolak47. - FMT
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