KUALA LUMPUR: Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak outlined five factors that have influenced young voters to back Barisan Nasional.
First, he said the unity among BN leaders, implementation of projects for the well-being of Malaysians, future plans for the country and the ability to ensure national stability and security has increased the youth’s confidence in the current administration.
Secondly, compared to BN, he said the opposition was always in a split and the only reason they cooperate with one another was to gain power.
For third point, he said young people were bored with the issues raised by the opposition as they are irrelevant compared to the issues brought by BN such as people’s well-being, development and national security.
He said the fourth reason was that the youth cannot accept chauvinistic politics that stretches the harmonious racial relations thin compared to BN’s struggles and efforts to form a united Malaysian nation.
Fifth, he said the youths also no longer give much thought on the political promises made by the opposition but evaluates on how those parties addresses various issues instead.
“These five factors encourage young voters to join BN. They are confident that the future of the country is more secure if BN continues to rule Malaysia,” he said in his blog post.
Salleh said that in the 13th General Election (GE13) back in 2013, 41.98 per cent of the voters, aged 21 to 40, were quite critical of the BN government.
However, he said the trend has changed as seen in the the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar parliamentary by-elections on June 18 last year when there was a surge in the support by young voters for the BN.
He said that in the Sungai Besar by-election, support for BN from young Chinese voters rose by 23 per cent to 38 per cent from the 15 per cent in the GE13.
Meanwhile, the support from young Malay voters, he said, rose by 13 per cent to 78 per cent from the 65 per cent in GE13.
This, he said was similar to Kuala Kangsar’s by-election too where there was a rise of 18 per cent support from young voters for BN, from 42 per cent in GE13 to 60 per cent in the by-election.