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Saturday, November 22, 2014

Puteri Umno assembly: Are young Malay women joining DAP really a threat?

Puteri Umno members help to gain support for the party by carrying out charity programmes which include helping the poor and disabled. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, November 22, 2014.Puteri Umno members help to gain support for the party by carrying out charity programmes which include helping the poor and disabled. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, November 22, 2014.
The numbers, Puteri Umno believes, are on their side. While three young Malay women have grabbed headlines for joining the DAP, Puteri Umno boasts a membership of 390,000 as of this year.
That’s more members than the DAP has nationwide, which is less than 200,000.
This is why Puteri Umno leaders such as its information chief Haryaty Hamdzah puts little stock in the hype about Umno losing the young Malay women’s vote.
Women voters like Umno
Before it happened to DAP’s Dyana Sofea Mohd Daud, Syefura Othman and Jamilah Rahim, the activists of Puteri Umno were the targets of vicious smear campaigns every time a by-election was held.
The slurs hurled at them by opposition parties were a sign of how effective they were at getting votes from rural and semi-urban Malays.
A favourite programme was the "anak angkat" scheme where Puteri Umno members would stay with families in a constituency during a by-election to slowly spread the Barisan Nasional message to them and their neighbours.
Puteri Umno has members in all Umno branches throughout the country.
Part of the reason why Puteri Umno is so well received is because it operates more like a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and less like a political party.
It eschews political rhetoric for charity programmes where members visit seniors, the poor, the disabled and the sick with not just aid, but forms to register them with the Welfare Department.
The electoral pay-off is evident. Independent pollster the Merdeka Center said that Malay women, young or old, are more likely than Malay men to vote for Umno.
In the last general election, Umno as a whole, garnered 54% of the Malay vote.
The trend is more pronounced in rural areas, where Umno’s women activists are opinion shapers, said Merdeka Center director Ibrahim Suffian.
“Even in a developed state like Selangor, in the last general election, Malay women voted overwhelmingly for Umno.
“The grassroots work that Umno’s women activists do is very significant and its effects last a long time,” said Ibrahim.
Stability over publicity
But there is an emerging trend of younger Malay voters who don’t buy into the Umno narrative that their fate is tied to the Malay party.
"This generation feels that leaders can be changed," said former Puteri Umno chief Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.
As long as you can lead, it does not matter if you are a man or a woman, a Malay or non-Malay.
"Maybe for them, anyone can lead, it does not necessarily have to be a Malay leader for the Malay community,” she said when asked whether Umno was worried about the trend started by the three DAP Malay women.
Wanita Umno assistant secretary Datuk Rosni Sohar, however, felt that the three DAP women would have little impact on support for Umno.
“In Umno, we do not practise this culture of instant-noodle leaders,” said Rosni, referring to how Dyana Sofea was chosen as Teluk Intan parliamentary by-election candidate despite her lack of seniority in the party.
For Puteri Umno leader Haryaty, whether or not this trend will chip away support for the wing is not something that keeps them up at night.
The wing is confident in its service-oriented approach and its assembly on November 26 will see it continuing to pursue that, said Haryaty.
Instead of talking about hot button issues such as vernacular schools and the Sedition Act that will likely grab lots of press attention, Puteri Umno is going to focus on employment among youths.
“This was the number one subject that kept cropping up in our meetings with young women. Basically, job prospects, wages and cost of living,” said Haryaty.
“What are the problems young women face after coming out of university or school and what can we do to help them.”
It’s not exciting but a potential vote-getter. Studies from the Merdeka Center show that young voters are mostly concerned with pocketbook issues.
And when it comes to Malay women, they are likely to vote based on perceptions of which party gives them and their families the best economic stability, said Ibrahim.
Stability in this case also means staying away from political parties that promote risky behaviour like staging street demonstrations.
So while young Malay women joining the DAP may continue to grab headlines, Puteri Umno is confident its small-scale, people-to-people programmes will continue to endear it to its target group.
“At the end of the day we think it’s better to give solutions to young women’s problems rather than getting them involved in activities that land them in trouble,” said Haryaty.
- TMI

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