Well, it's good to know that Bloomberg and several other political analysts share the same views on this issue with this humble, semi-retired, former writer who once specialised in writing about the information and communications technology (ICT) industry.
This understanding is not new and many who have been active in or who have observed politics on the ground in rural, semi-rural and semi-urban areas already know this, and also that people living, working and running businesses in these areas have different perspectives, priorities and values from more affluent and sophisticated urbanites.
Back in January 2011, a controversy flared over the historical novel Interlok being derogatory towards ethnic Indians of Malaysia, and it was one of the books in the school reading syllabus which made the controversy even more hot, with articles about it appearing on Free Malaysia Today's website almost daily and in other print and online media as well.
Meanwhile, reporters from Free Malaysia went down to cover the campaigning in the run up to the by-election for the state seat of Tenang. a small rural town in northern Johor state on 30 January 2011 and they asked some ethnic Indians there what they thought about Interlok and some Indians there said that they had not heard about Interlok, whilst others who did told the reporters that yes they had heard about the Interlok controversy but they had bigger concerns over their economic survival to have time to be bothered with a mere book, to its credit Free Malaysia Today reported.
Now that was way back in 2011 and we still have some clowns, especially from the opposition parties and opposition supporters who go around places like Tenang, Sungai Besar, Kuala Kangsar, recently in Sarawak, etc, using issues which urbanites are preoccupied with to try convince voters there to vote from them.
Their approach here is to demonise the incumbent, rather than try to convince the voters that the opposition can do a better job of serving their interests if elected.
So they usually lose in these areas but continue on repeating their failed approach, over and over again, perhaps hoping that one fine day, the proverbial needle of their proverbial turntable will somehow become unstuck from the rut in the damaged proverbial vinyl record playing on their proverbial turntable at the time, and the opposition party finally goes on to beat the incumbent party for the seat.
So without further ado, below is the story by Free Malaysia Today.
CHARLES F MOREIRA
Rural votes to decide next General Election victor
FMT Reporters A Bloomberg report says farmers and land settlers favour Umno as they say government policies have helped improve their lives.
KUALA LUMPUR: The rural population is well-taken care of by the Government, which is why the Barisan Nasional (BN) does consistently well in rural areas.
And that is why Prime Minister Najib Razak continues to court farmers and works to keep smallholders and Felda settlers happy.
According to a Bloomberg report, Najib needs to keep smallholders happy as he seeks the votes of rural and semi-urban areas to retain power in the next General Election due by 2018.
“Farmers — many of them ethnic Malays — are a linchpin for his party, which leads one of the world’s longest-ruling coalitions. Their votes have a higher weighting than their work, which contributes to less than a tenth of gross domestic product.”
The report said, at the next General Election, Najib would probably further target the bottom 40 per cent of the population who can swing votes in tight races.
At stake for Umno, the report said, was the unbroken rule of its BN coalition since independence in 1957.
Umno is watching Najib’s ability to shake off a year of political turmoil – including the problems at 1Malaysia Development Bhd, the state investment arm that he established and which is at the centre of probes in at least six nations – and focus on bolstering a slowing economy.
Najib, the report said, had pledged bigger subsidies for rubber planters and rice farmers in the 2016 budget. He announced monetary handouts this month for rubber farmers totalling RM194 million.
The report quoted farmer Fairuzita Mohamad Amir, a voter in the Sungai Besar parliamentary constituency which was won on June 18 by the BN’s candidate from Umno in a by-election, as saying:
“I learned to say Umno along with my ABCs. Over the years, they have helped me a lot. I need their support and they have mine.”
She cultivates paddy on 2.5 acres of land with the help of subsidies plus access to fertilisers and pesticides, for which she credits Umno.
The report quoted Isman Abdul Karim, who grows palm oil on a 5-acre plot of land near Sungai Besar, as saying he won a manual oil palm roll picker at an event organised by the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities in the days before the Sungai Besar by-election. Other prizes included bags of fertiliser, and a motorised palm oil fruit cutter.
The father of nine said his life had improved over the years. One child received a government scholarship to study in the US and is now a computer engineer. He said there was no other party but Umno for him.
Bloomberg quoted Khor Yu Leng, an analyst who has published papers on Malaysia’s political-economy including voting trends in the 2013 election, as saying: “Even as Malaysia becomes more developed, the importance of the farmers and the rural voters remains intact. The concentration of seats in farming areas is quite big for Malaysia, and Umno will want to strengthen that.”
“Farmers and fishermen are from the mainstream Malay heartlands and those heartlands are key to Barisan Nasional regardless of any issue, whether it’s about GST or 1MDB,” said Ahmad Martadha Mohamed, dean of the college of law, government and international studies at Universiti Utara Malaysia. “If the prime minister continues to provide support to these groups, they will continue to support him in the future.”
The importance of rural voters can be seen in Malaysia’s electoral map. Settlers under Malaysia’s Federal Land Development Authority — a government agency known as Felda formed in 1956 with World Bank funding to help steer the rural poor out of poverty by providing them with land to plant — are backbone voters in over 50 districts, according to the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research.
In the last general election there were 125 rural seats and 54 semi-urban ones, of a total of 222, said Khor.
“State assistance touches every aspect of their lives — an education grant for their children, an entrepreneurial grant, a house, or do they want to choose to go on their own,” Khor said of smallholder farmers, who number more than 600,000. “It might appear illogical to vote for the opposition because what if you get punished?”
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/06/21/rural-votes-to-decide-next-general-election-victor/
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