The report said these people were actually very interested in politics, and demonstrated a coherent opinion of what they want from their representatives through their comments online.
However, they were “stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea”, it said.
On one hand, the report said, there was Barisan Nasional (BN) which offers only the status quo and is led by Prime Minister Najib Razak, against whom allegations of massive corruption have been made.
On the other was Pakatan Harapan (PH), an opposition coalition which appeared to have “pawned its principles on the gamble” that a 92-year-old former prime minister might actually help it win a general election for the first time in history.
Some voters have rallied behind the #UndiRosak social media campaign to show their discontent over the matter.
The report said those thinking of boycotting GE14 could not be blamed because PH’s reason for existence seemed to be to get rid of the Umno-led BN.
At times, it added, it seemed as if toppling Umno and BN was the opposition’s end game, and not just a means of achieving power. Now, with Dr Mahathir Mohamad leading the opposition, there was an “even more vengeful tone” as Mahathir’s “only apparent goal is to oust Najib”.
Mahathir’s PPBM, “another pro-Malay Muslim party that was considered as being of the same ilk as Umno”, is set to contest the most number of seats for PH in Peninsular Malaysia. PH has also made Mahathir its prime ministerial candidate.
As a result, DAP and PKR’s once progressive impulses have been tempered. Comparing the opposition’s policy comments going into the 2013 general election and now, the report said, it was clear that policy today was not as important as personality, “chiefly Mahathir’s brand of personality-based politics”.
The report said it was therefore unsurprising to see voter discontent manifest itself in various forms, including the #UndiRosak campaign.
It quoted comments by social activist Maryam Lee, including that PH should realise “people are not going to vote for you just because they are angry at someone else”.
It also said some prominent opposition politicians and activists had responded to the #UndiRosak campaign in undemocratic and unfair ways, including claiming that the campaign’s instigators were simply Umno supporters, which it called an unfair statement.
The Diplomat report said the effort to improve democracy would not be helped by deriding those who wanted to employ their democratic right to abstain from voting.
“Of course, it’s not fair on voters who think the opposition will clean up the electoral system and run a progressive government, but this is the very kind of unfairness that people in democratic nations have to accept.”
The report said a spoiled ballot was a means of showing the political classes that one was not happy with what was on offer.
“In the end, low voter turnout is always a sign of unhealthy politics, though not turning up to vote isn’t the same as showing up at the polling station and spoiling one’s ballot. The former is passive; the latter is active.”