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| It looks like even the afternoon will not be spared of rain which will further dampen voters turnout in Johor |
At 11:58 AM on a state election polling day, a message popped up on my phone from an unknown person from Sarawak: “Until 11:00 AM, only 26.43% have turned out to vote. That is dangerously low.”
Though he isn't a voter in this election, his anxiety was palpable. He couldn't understand why the electorate seemed so entirely disconnected. But as an observer who has watched Malaysian politics evolve for decades, I wasn’t surprised at all. I have grown cold, too.
The fire that drove us in 2013—when everyday citizens stood guard at polling stations, ready to protect ballot boxes with their own lives—has flickered out. Since I first cast my vote in 1990, I have never seen apathy run this deep. Politicians are misreading this silence as peace. It isn't peace; it is disillusionment:
The Illusion of Invincibility in Selangor
The Illusion of Invincibility in Selangor
Let’s not pretend we don’t know why voters are staying home. DAP and Pakatan Harapan leaders in Selangor need to wake up to a harsh reality: public sentiment is no longer firmly in your pocket.
After two decades in power in Selangor, a dangerous complacency has set in.
Certain PKR Menteri Besars and DAP or Amanah Excos have simply overstayed their welcome, transforming from the "warriors of the people" we once cheered for into the very establishment we used to fight.
Even Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim exposed this structural rot when he bluntly noted:
"After elections, the elected representatives cannot even be contacted, and they fail to serve the people who elected them."
The tragic truth is that the arrogance and indifference we once condemned in the old Barisan Nasional regime have now been perfectly replicated by the reformists.
Two Telling Disappointments: The "Bittergourd" MP and Bureaucratic Cowardice
To understand why voters are not tuning out, look no further than how senior leaders handle real human crises today.
Case 1: The Taman OUG Case and its MP
A family in Taman OUG was facing a severe, complex crisis that threatened to tear them apart. A few intermediaries and I stepped in as third parties to help them navigate the mess. We reached out to the local MP, hoping she would use her office to bridge the gap with the Home Ministry.
Instead of listening, she refused to meet, deflected the issue to an assistant, and snapped: "I don’t have the power to approve the IC." She didn't even bother to learn the facts before jumping to conclusions.
I call her the "Bittergourd MP" now. Recently, I saw her sitting alone at an event, wearing a long, sullen expression. When I greeted her politely, she barely acknowledged it, looking as though the world owed her something. What a devastating contrast to 2009, when I publicly praised her as an energetic state Exco who personally marched into the Panasonic MD's office to cut through municipal red tape. The passion to serve is gone; only the title remains.
Case 2: The Silent Champion
In another instance, a friend in Penang was struggling with a local council failure. I brought the matter up to a senior DAP leader—someone famously known as a people's champion who once went to prison for defending an Indonesian maid.
His response? Silence. When pressed, he hid behind jurisdiction, stating the area belonged to Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow's Batu Kawan constituency. When I asked him to simply pass the message to his colleague, he refused, claiming: "It is not right for me to let him know the problem."
What absolute nonsense. If senior leaders within the same ruling party are so paralyzed by internal friction that they cannot even speak to one another to resolve a citizen's complaint, why do they deserve to govern? The public does not care about your internal party politics—we care about results.
Leadership That Works: A Contrast in Service
This erosion of responsibility makes Anthony Loke’s past political posturing—threatening to pull DAP out of the Unity Government over manifesto deadlines—look incredibly childish. The Unity Government belongs to the people, not a single party. It was forged out of necessity to stabilise a fractured nation.
Amidst this widespread disappointment, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim remains our best option, but he must look closely at what is happening on the ground. The true failure of the government is happening at the local level. Selayang, Shah Alam, Kuala Lumpur—our municipal councils are riddled with the exact same inefficiencies and system failures we complained about 20 years ago. It all has to do with the senior management staff who have become too complacent because no one at the federal or state level cares what is happening on the ground.
True leadership stands out precisely because it is so rare now. Ironically, our local drainage and infrastructure issues are currently being resolved by a Federal Minister from East Malaysia. He doesn't represent our state, but he embodies a philosophy our local leaders have forgotten: “Elections are over. We serve the people, regardless of political affiliation.” In most of the issues, neither the MP (a very senior politician from DAP) nor the state assemblyman (a nobody as far as I am concerned from PKR, yet behaving arrogantly) even appears on the scene.
Credit to whom credit is due, this federal minister even proactively reached out to get an opposition assemblyman's contact to collaboratively solve traffic congestion with the Malaysian Highway Authority.
Similarly, I will always hold deep respect for Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. Years ago, I sat quietly at the end of her dining table when she was just the wife of an imprisoned opposition leader. Decades later, at a high-profile wedding, I walked across the hall just to tell her on behalf of the woman she had helped, "Thank you, Kak Wan."
I didn't do it to network. I did it because her office spent months knocking on the doors of the Welfare Department to secure a monthly sustenance allowance for a widow who was sidelined by the social welfare department, despite her life spent on rehabilitating former drug addicts and helping those involved in flesh trade to return to a good path. Long after the file was closed, Kak Wan was still sending groceries to that widow. That is what public service looks like.
A Final Warning to the Ruling Class
In the past, I would have taken a bus down to Segamat to camp out, campaign, and actively rally the ground for the leaders I believed in. Not anymore.
To the politicians currently sitting comfortably in their air-conditioned offices: do not mistake a low voter turnout for a quiet mandate. It is a silent boycott. When you stop listening to the families in Taman OUG or the residents facing flooded streets, you lose your right to our passion. If you continue to display the same arrogance as the governments we overthrew, history will repeat itself—and the voters will leave you behind, just as you left them.
May this piece set the politicians on the right track again before the next general election to be called in just 24 months from now. Perhaps, by then, my spirit would be more uplifted to fight for justice to be restored to the people. For now, I can say I am with Anwar as long as he focuses his attention to help the B40 community, but if he alone is trying to run an Administration that continues to rot, then, I feel sorry not only for him, but for all Malaysians who desire to see Malaysia becoming a nation with great promises to the younger generations.
I would be sad if, after writing this piece, the politicians remain indifferent especially when the Johor state election turnout picks up by mid day. It goes to show that they are not ready for reforms themselves. If they win big, the sane level of arrogance and indifference will be exhibited. All I can say is, “Whatever will be, will be.” This country will continue to be in its state of limbo is either side politicians, no matter how promising they may appear, one breakaway faction after another, it is all for their own personal agenda, instead of serving the people.
I have always said the politician who continues to care for the people he serves in his constituency, needs not campaign too much during the lead up to the general election, because the voters know who they should be voting for.
(A former MP from DAP asked if I thought his leaders in DAP would heed my article, I told him that they may not even read or agree with it but others will read and be able to see what I see. In fact Thi’s blog has been read by thousands of people with some asking me who I am referring to. It is not important. The important question is whether these leaders can be reformed themselves). Sometimes, it takes defeat to teach them an important lesson.
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