Page 67 - Towards_a_New_Malaysia_The_2018_Election_and_Its_6146371_(z-lib.org)

52 Faisal S. Hazis

Over the years, Malay demographics have changed in ways that inevitably
a ect voting behaviour. Malays are increasingly concentrated in urban areas,
due to the high level of urbanisation in Malaysia—a shift from around 10 per
cent of the population in 1911 to 28.4 per cent in 1970 and 61.8 per cent
in 2000 (Usman et al. 2010). e share of Malays speci cally living in urban
areas increased from 21 per cent in 1957 to already just shy of a majority,
48.3 per cent, by 2000 (Usman et al. 2010). Highly-urbanised states like
Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang, Malacca, and Perak have a higher number
of Malay urban seats than do less urbanised states like Perlis, Kelantan,
Kedah, and Terengganu. Although most urban Malays vote according to their
current residence, quite a few return to rural hometowns to vote. Nonetheless,
urbanisation has had signi cant impacts on Malays’ livelihood and outlook. As
a result, this process has assuredly changed their voting behaviour.
Apart from Malays’ being more urbanised, a signi cantly greater share of
the community is now middle class. is development, too, can be expected
to have had a signi cant impact on voting behaviour. Rapid economic growth
especially in the approximately two decades after implementation of the New
Economic Policy, a programme of preferential policies to bene t Malays and
other Bumiputera, hastened the process of shaping a distinct working class,
middle class, and capitalist class in Malaysia (Abdul Rahman 2000). e Malay
middle class has since continued gradually to gain in size and in uence. Many
from its ranks, for instance, have been actively involved in social movements
pushing for electoral change over the last two decades. However, as Sulaiman
Mahbob (1986) cautioned, as urbanisation accelerated in Malaysia, the process
also increased the share of Malays in urban low-income groups; Malays from
across classes coexist in urban areas.
Malay voters are quite heterogeneous in terms of culture, economic status,
and worldview. Quite a number still reside in rural areas, even as increasingly
more live in cities across the country. Some are quite well to do, but others still
struggle to make ends meet. Hence, it should come as no surprise that Malays
have di erent political cultures, party a liations, and voting behaviours.
ese di erences were clearly manifested in the voting patterns among Malays
in GE14, magnifying the e ect of the aforementioned elite rifts.

Voting Patterns in Malay-majority Seats

Polling day saw a big swing to the opposition from all corners of the country,
including BN’s ‘ xed deposit’ states, Sabah, Sarawak, and Johor. BN was caught
by surprise when they lost 70 Malay-majority seats and won only 52. In GE13,

This content downloaded from 139.80.253.0 on Fri, 06 Nov 2020 04:21:53 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms