All is not lost, Amanah will work harder
We fully recognise the gargantuan task before us to reshape Malaysia’s political landscape and how small and young Amanah is, but we will be bolder in our fight for national unity and ethical governance.
By Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad
We, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah), truly understand the uneasiness and agony that the outcomes of both by-elections have caused (P067 Kuala Kangsar and P093 Sungai Besar).
The Umno Barisan Nasional government namely Prime Minister Najib Razak were seen gloating and seizing the opportunity to absolve the sins of omissions and commissions in the RM4.2 billion donation scandal and the many debacles of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The latest sacking of Tan Sri Mahyudin and Mukhriz Mahathir could very well be related to their euphoric and bullish state.
Be that as it may, on behalf of my party and leaders-colleagues of the Pakatan Harapan, we profoundly and humbly submit our sincere apologies to all our well-wishers and supporters for having lost both the by-elections.
While fighting the entire fire-power of the BN’s government machineries, in a very uneven battleground, Amanah and Pakatan Harapan must also honestly admit of our many shortcomings for these failures.
The last minute choice of the party to contest both by-elections sufficed as one striking evidence of our indecisiveness.
We are conscious of the rakyat’s urgent demand that we exude more solid solidarity and unflinching tenacity as a Political Coalition capable of unseating the BN government.
But ‘All is Not Lost’..! Though BN is painted as achieving a thumping victory, our early findings in the post-mortem have revealed the ‘silver linings’ that we did not anticipate to see with such bad outings.
Comparing the recent by-elections and results in the 13th General Election of 2013, in the predominantly Malay Polling Districts (90% and above) in both constituencies, we have consistently found out the following:
- That PAS lost 1 in 4 votes (ca 26%) it won in 2013 in both Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar.
- That BN lost 1 out of 10 votes (ca 10%) it won in 2013 in Kuala Kangsar and 1 out of 7 votes (ca 14%) in Sungai Besar.
- Amanah, however, only managed to gain 1 out of 2 votes that BN (Umno) and PAS lost in Kuala Kangsar and 1 out of 3 votes in Sungai Besar. The other votes are either wasted as spoilt votes (not many) or voters didn’t turn out to vote.
- More specifically, 1 out of 2 voters that abandoned PAS in Kuala Kangsar and 1 out of 3 voters in Sungai Besar had chosen to not vote.
Similar analysis in the predominantly non-Malay (90% and above) Polling Districts in Kuala Kangsar and the predominantly Chinese ones in Sungai Besar found that:
- PAS lost 99% of the votes it gained in 2013 in Sungai Besar and 91% of that in Kuala Kangsar. (Serious implication for 14th GE).
- Amanah gained 2 out of 3 votes PAS lost in Sungai Besar and 1 out of 2 votes in Kuala Kangsar.
- Umno gained only 1 out of 20 votes PAS lost in Sungai Besar and 1 out of 5 votes in Kuala Kangsar.
- More than 1 out of 4 voters that abandoned PAS however had chosen to not vote.
That we have failed to both (a) gain more votes from Umno and PAS and (b) received all votes that have abandoned these two parties show that Amanah’s pursuit of an Inclusive lslam that serves all Malaysians is still a novel cause to most voters, sandwiched between Umno’s Malay nationalism and PAS’s Neo-Muslim nationalism. There are still ‘upsides’ or potential to be tapped, given the right strategy and approach of Amanah and the PH.
We reckon our weaknesses in effectively promoting to both the Malay and non-Malay voters how Islam can and must be a “Blessing for All” (Rahmatan lil ‘Aalamin) premised on the principles of ‘Human Dignity’ (Karamah Insaniyah) and ‘Brotherhood of Man’ (Ukhuwwah Insaniyah). We must work harder to combat the abuse of Islam to poisonously divide and segregate the nation and to cynically defend and cover-up corruption.
Amanah affirms our commitment to establish Islam as the basis of human well-being and good governance in a civil state instead of advocating Hudud and the other punitive aspects of lslam. Where narrow nationalism divides, Islam unites. Where religious bigotry excludes and criminalises, Islam embraces and enriches. Where corruption wounds and destroys, Islam heals and redeems. Where tyranny represses, Islam liberates.
As a member of Pakatan Harapan, we will relentlessly fight for national unity and ethical governance based on the timeless universal principles of Accountability, Transparency and Competency as enjoined by Islam. We shall withstand all slanders and curses for upholding our conviction.
We will work harder (and smarter) in exploring and advocating policy solutions to address the absolute poverty and relative poverty, both in rural and urban areas. Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto for the GE14 must be bolder in combating poverty, inequality and marginalisation, which make many voters susceptible to the clarion call of “cash is king”. It is the duty of all pro-democracy parties to empower voters so that they can make free and informed choices, while debunking the politics of fear and patronage.
We fully recognise the gargantuan task before us to reshape Malaysia’s political landscape with the call of Inclusive Islam given how young and small Amanah is. In this Holy Month of Ramadan, we take our defeats in Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar as a tribulation to harden our will, while enhancing our skill-sets to better serve Malaysia.
We humbly urge all who share our vision to join hands and motivate us to do better.
Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad is the strategy director of Parti Amanah Negara.
Stay current - Follow FMT on WhatsApp, Google news and Telegram
With a firm belief in freedom of expression and without prejudice, FMT tries its best to share reliable content from third parties. Such articles are strictly the writer’s personal opinion. FMT does not necessarily endorse the views or opinions given by any third party content provider.