Opinion: PSM-MUDA Alliance will lose its deposit
29 Mar 2025 • 8:30 AM MYT
TheRealNehruism
Writer. Seeker. Teacher
Image credit: Malay Mail
Muda and Parti Sosialis Malaysia ( PSM) are now in alliance.
The upcoming Ayer Kuning by-election is going to be the first election where they are going to test their alliance.
How do I think they will do?
I think they will lose their deposit.
Wan Zamzahidi Wan Zahid, the Pahang PSM chief, naturally, is more sanguine about the prospects of the PSM-Muda alliance.
He seems to believe that the alliance will be able to make an impact in the coming election because
1) voters are disenchanted by the repetitive cycle of political power-sharing and broken promises
2) because PSM and Muda offer a fresh perspective that challenges the entrenched interests of the major coalitions and
3) because PSM’s long-standing commitment to workers’ rights, social welfare, and grassroots advocacy, combined with Muda’s youthful energy and focus on transparency, is a unique combination that resonates with voters seeking meaningful change.
Wan Zamzahidi has actually given more reasons than that, but I just stopped there, because regardless of how many reasons he gave, the one reason that he did not give, which is the one reason that matters, is whether voters identify with the PSM-Muda coalition?
At the end of the day, it is identity, not competence, nor fresh new ideas, nor fresh faces, nor commitments to workers rights, that will determine electoral victory.
No matter how great you are, nobody is going to vote for you if they don’t believe that you are a part of them or that they can be a part of you.
Like it or not, the only parties in Semenanjung that have a chance to give the voters in Semenanjung a perception that they are a part of you and you are a part of them, are PH, BN and PN.
One way to understand identity is to ask yourself why people would rather hand over their company to their children, although their children might not really know how to run their company, rather than hand it over to their capable employee, who has a proven track record of running their company.
They do so, because they identify with the children more than they do with their employees. Even if their employee is much more able to run their company compared to their children, their employees succeeding is not going to make them feel like they succeeded. On the other hand, even if their children run their company to the ground, at least their children’s failure is something that they will be able to identify with.
There are things that you have to do in order to develop an “identity” with someone. Spending time or having a history with them is one. Helping them when they are in trouble is two. Feeling up when they do well and down when they are doing poorly, or at least look like it, is three. Having charismatic personalities in your party that can help your party identify with a large number of people or have a large number of people identify with your party is four. Being able to criticise or complain about a political party or leader is five. Speaking up about a subject that is significant to your identity group is six.
It is only after a political party or leader develops such an “identity” with a voter , will the voters consider voting for them.
When you are standing in front of a ballot box, the question that will be in your mind before you cast your vote is “what is in it for me? Why should I cross for this or that party, and make them the government or minister or MPs?”
The answer that a political party needs to establish in the mind of the voters is that they should vote for it because voting for it is equal to voting for themselves. If they win, it will be like you won, and if they lose, it will be as if you yourself lost.
How you establish this belief in this mind of the voters is what the entire game of politics is all about.
Personally, I don’t think PSM or Muda are even aware of the game, much less play it.
I don’t think that they have even started to play the game of politics, because I don’t see them doing anything to make the voters identify with them – instead, all they seem to be doing is trying to give voters the impression that voters should vote for them, because they are somewhat worth it.
Who cares whether the candidate or party you vote for is worth it or not?
If people cared about whether the candidate or party they vote for has any worth, three quarters of our MPs wouldn’t have made the cut and four fifths of our party would have gone extinct.
The only question that voters want to know before they vote for someone, is whether the person or party that they vote for is a “one of them”? If the party wins, will they feel that they won? If the party loses, will they feel that they lost?
Voters only care about whether a party is worth it after they have identified with the party. Before that, even if the party is worth it, no one is going to vote for it, for the same reason that you are not going to feel happy, because a stranger's child did well in school. First you have to see the child as your own - only after that will you care as to whether they did well in school.
The fact that I don’t think that PSM and Muda are even aware that this is what the voters are thinking about before they decide where to cast their vote, is why I am fully certain that unless there is some quirk of fate – like if both the PH and BN candidate become disqualified to stand for election, and the only choice that voters have is to choose either the PN candidate or the PSM-Muda candidate, the PSM – Muda candidate will likely lose their deposit.
Wan Zamzahidi has actually given more reasons than that, but I just stopped there, because regardless of how many reasons he gave, the one reason that he did not give, which is the one reason that matters, is whether voters identify with the PSM-Muda coalition?
At the end of the day, it is identity, not competence, nor fresh new ideas, nor fresh faces, nor commitments to workers rights, that will determine electoral victory.
No matter how great you are, nobody is going to vote for you if they don’t believe that you are a part of them or that they can be a part of you.
Like it or not, the only parties in Semenanjung that have a chance to give the voters in Semenanjung a perception that they are a part of you and you are a part of them, are PH, BN and PN.
One way to understand identity is to ask yourself why people would rather hand over their company to their children, although their children might not really know how to run their company, rather than hand it over to their capable employee, who has a proven track record of running their company.
They do so, because they identify with the children more than they do with their employees. Even if their employee is much more able to run their company compared to their children, their employees succeeding is not going to make them feel like they succeeded. On the other hand, even if their children run their company to the ground, at least their children’s failure is something that they will be able to identify with.
There are things that you have to do in order to develop an “identity” with someone. Spending time or having a history with them is one. Helping them when they are in trouble is two. Feeling up when they do well and down when they are doing poorly, or at least look like it, is three. Having charismatic personalities in your party that can help your party identify with a large number of people or have a large number of people identify with your party is four. Being able to criticise or complain about a political party or leader is five. Speaking up about a subject that is significant to your identity group is six.
It is only after a political party or leader develops such an “identity” with a voter , will the voters consider voting for them.
When you are standing in front of a ballot box, the question that will be in your mind before you cast your vote is “what is in it for me? Why should I cross for this or that party, and make them the government or minister or MPs?”
The answer that a political party needs to establish in the mind of the voters is that they should vote for it because voting for it is equal to voting for themselves. If they win, it will be like you won, and if they lose, it will be as if you yourself lost.
How you establish this belief in this mind of the voters is what the entire game of politics is all about.
Personally, I don’t think PSM or Muda are even aware of the game, much less play it.
I don’t think that they have even started to play the game of politics, because I don’t see them doing anything to make the voters identify with them – instead, all they seem to be doing is trying to give voters the impression that voters should vote for them, because they are somewhat worth it.
Who cares whether the candidate or party you vote for is worth it or not?
If people cared about whether the candidate or party they vote for has any worth, three quarters of our MPs wouldn’t have made the cut and four fifths of our party would have gone extinct.
The only question that voters want to know before they vote for someone, is whether the person or party that they vote for is a “one of them”? If the party wins, will they feel that they won? If the party loses, will they feel that they lost?
Voters only care about whether a party is worth it after they have identified with the party. Before that, even if the party is worth it, no one is going to vote for it, for the same reason that you are not going to feel happy, because a stranger's child did well in school. First you have to see the child as your own - only after that will you care as to whether they did well in school.
The fact that I don’t think that PSM and Muda are even aware that this is what the voters are thinking about before they decide where to cast their vote, is why I am fully certain that unless there is some quirk of fate – like if both the PH and BN candidate become disqualified to stand for election, and the only choice that voters have is to choose either the PN candidate or the PSM-Muda candidate, the PSM – Muda candidate will likely lose their deposit.
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