Bersama leader Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has accused established political parties of relying on fear to win votes instead of persuading Malaysians to support them based on their policies and principles.
He said such parties had resorted to what he described as ‘ghost stories’ about what could happen if their political rivals came to power.
‘DAP will say that if you vote for Bersama, PAS will become the government, or Umno will take power.
‘Umno plays the same game. It says DAP will take power if the Malays are not united. That’s the game. Politics of fear,’ he said at an event in Penang tonight.
Bersama co-leader Rafizi Ramli also criticised major parties for frequently relying on race-based narratives instead of focusing on bread-and-butter issues.
He said DAP’s strategy, in particular, ultimately reinforced race-based politics in its approach to non-Malay voters.
Rafizi questions DAP’s narrative
Rafizi claimed that DAP repeatedly asked non-Malay voters to support it on the basis that it was their ‘last line of defence’ and the ‘only one that dared to speak for the non-Malays’.
‘DAP’s strategy will reinforce race-based politics because its narrative is about “us versus them”,’ he said.
Nik Nazmi said Bersama wanted to avoid repeating what he described as the mistakes made by older political parties and was carefully planning its next steps.
‘We want to learn from the mistakes of older political parties. Bersama will be truly different. Yes, we want power, but we want it the right way,’ he said.
Bersama looks to the long term
Nik Nazmi said this approach meant Bersama would need time to establish itself, estimating that the party could take five to seven years to build enough support to challenge the country’s major political parties.
He also pointed to Penang’s electoral history as evidence that voters in the state were willing to embrace political change.
Referring to the 2008 state election, when Pakatan Rakyat took power from Barisan Nasional, he said Bersama hoped voters would once again be open to a new political choice.
‘In 2008, you voted for DAP and PKR. So our hope is that you will vote for us if you are tired of what is happening in Penang,’ he said.
