Sungai Bakap's Pakatan defeat not due to diesel subsidy scheme, claims Rafizi

The Star

PKR Deputy President Rafizi Ramli has refuted claims that the implementation of the targeted diesel subsidy scheme was the cause of the unity government's defeat in the Sungai Bakap by-election.  Rafizi clarified to reporters on Wednesday (July 10) that if the subsidy scheme was indeed the cause of the defeat, Perikatan Nasional should have seen an increase in their Malay voter base in the by-election, but that was not the case as the voter base remained the same as the previous election.  Rafizi, who is also the PKR election director, emphasised the need to thoroughly examine the results of the Sungai Bakap by-election before determining the real cause of the defeat, suggesting that a combination of factors might be at play.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00Some have blamed about the fuel subsidy. What do you think happened in Sunil Bakar?

00:14I think you have to drill down to the nitty-gritty of the result. Nitty-gritty of the result

00:23is that there is no obvious swing in Malay support. In the last PRN, Malay support for

00:32PH candidate was about 22-23%. Currently, it's about 22-23% too. So, even though the

00:43majority seems high, actually there was no swing of support for Malays. Likewise, there

00:50is no swing of support for non-Malays. Chinese were about 90% voted for PH. The main difference

01:01this time around is the turn-out rate. The turn-out rate has a big difference. In the

01:08voting area, the majority of Malay, it hit as high as 80%. In the voting area, the majority

01:18of Chinese, there are two. One is Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan, Taman Bandar Mutiara.

01:25The other is Sunil Bakar. The voting area is as low as 45%. So, if you are looking at

01:35the turn-out rate of especially Chinese and then to a certain extent Indians, are half

01:42of the Malay voters. Dalam keadaan yang sokongan itu tidak beralih. It's actually, we are still

01:51that low exactly as one year ago in terms of support. So, I think that has to be established

01:57first. Then, I think you can go to the next question. The next question is sama ada.

02:03Apa, adakah ini disebabkan diesel and so on. I think we have to engage more with focus

02:13group with the non-Malay voters there to understand their motivation of not coming out. Tapi kalau

02:20dilihat kepada tahap sokongan pengundi Melayu, kalau betul soal diesel semua ini ada kesan

02:29besar kepada undian, then you would have expected PN to actually increase their share

02:36of vote. But it didn't. It remains exactly the same. It's about 22-78. Last year sebelum

02:43ada diesel pun macam itu, sekarang selepas diesel pun begitu. So, I think we have to

02:48look at everything in totality. So, as it is now, if we were to conclude the motivation

02:59for the non-Malays not to turn up lah, lower turnout. Is it diesel? Is it other issues?

03:07I think that's something that we have to get more data on lah. Although I also have to

03:12point out, actually, traditionally, memang dalam PRK dan pilihan raya negeri, turnout

03:19rate of non-Malays memang selalunya lebih rendah. Sebab itu, I think, you know, dia

03:25menyentuh Johor sikit lah. Contoh kalau macam PRN Johor, kan? PRN Johor, contohnya, in

03:312022, kan? BN menang besar. Part of it is because sebenarnya pengundi bukan Melayu itu

03:39dia tak keluar. Tapi when it comes to PRU kemudian, about seven months later, the turnout

03:44itu come back and dia rebalance the whole thing. So, traditionally pun, memang pengundi

03:51bukan Melayu, semasa PRK dan PRN, memang historically have a lower turnout than Melay voters lah,

03:59kan? Jadi, I think, is, is, apa namanya, too early for us to conclude anything because

04:11the parameters were quite clear. First, memang tidak ada peralihan sokongan kepada

04:17siapa-siapa. We are exactly as we were almost a year ago. Secondly, the issue is sebenarnya

04:24turnout. Then, of course, do we have enough information to say the non-Malays didn't

04:29turn out about diesel? I think that we, we need to go back and, and find out more. But

04:34yet, at the same time, if diesel were a big issue, you don't get that with the Malays

04:43because the support level remains the same. So, I think, we will operate within those

04:49parameters. At PKR level, definitely, we will get more data and information. But I think,

04:57is, is, is, is a mixture of all.

05:00I think, though, you are aware that some politicians have personally blamed you for the loss,

05:07KJ and Ken.

05:09Well, when, when PR, PH won successively before, actually, that issue doesn't come up. And

05:20sebab itu, I think, sama ada Kian Meng ke, KJ ke, or anyone, I have not read whatever

05:26their, their comments. I think we have to go back to the data and fact, kan? And the data

05:34and fact is, basically, is about turnout rate. Jadi, I think, we have to look everything

05:40in totality. When I was leading the, apa namanya, election campaign for PKR, from such, such,

05:52successive loss in PRN Melaka and then PRN Jopo, and then in PRU 2022, and then we did

06:00a lot better than what was expected. Dia tak ada pula, KJ ke Kian Meng, but comment.

06:05Masa itu, kan? So, I think, we have to approach it a bit more scientifically, and therefore

06:13you have to look at the parameters and the data and so on. For the time being, to me,

06:18it's inconclusive. In fact, we are deadlocked. If anything, one thing that is certain is

06:25that the country has not moved forward in terms of political support for the last 12

06:31to 15 months, whatever either side are doing. And that's, to me, is more worrying than anything

06:37else. It shows how polarised everything is. So, I think, you letaklah Kian Meng ke, jadi

06:44ke, KJ ke, but I don't think it's going to shift anything. And if anything, that worries

06:49me, how deadlocked the polarisation is.

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