KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 18): As none of the coalitions in Peninsular Malaysia is likely to garner enough parliamentary seats to form the next government, political blocs in Sabah and Sarawak have their grasp firmly on the crown, ready to play their role as the potential kingmaker in the upcoming 15th general election (GE15).

“Peninsular [Malaysia] on our own — no one will be able to govern. To have enough numbers to form a federal government, you will need strong support from Sabah and Sarawak,” DAP assistant publicity secretary Hannah Yeoh told The Edge in an interview recently. 

The 165 seats from the peninsula are relatively more fiercely-contested than the 57 seats from East Malaysia.

Yeoh is defending her Segambut seat in Kuala Lumpur, in a three-cornered fight against MCA’s Daniel Ling Sia Chin on BN’s ticket, and Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia’s Prabagaran Vythilingam under the PN ticket.

In GE14, Yeoh won by a landslide 45,702 votes or 70.61% in Segambut over her closest competitor, BN’s Loga Bala Mohan, hence the urban seat is widely seen to be safely in the hands of DAP in GE15.

That said, Yeoh said DAP has been making headway in the rural areas in recent years, in its quest to shake away the label of being only an urban seat-focused party. 

However, penetrating rural areas is not an easy feat for DAP, she conceded.

“We speak a lot about the message of change, change in the city is always welcome.

[But] not everybody welcomes change; there are different aspects of life that people want to preserve, and in the rural areas, that is the kind of quiet life that people want to preserve,” Yeoh explained.

“So, when you talk about change, it is not going to be welcome everywhere,” she added.

Nonetheless, Yeoh assured that the party will still attempt to make headway, though war chants DAP use in urban areas may not receive the same response in rural areas.

DAP is contesting 55 seats in GE15, up from 47 seats in GE14, due to the redistribution of seats previously contested by Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), which broke away from Pakatan Harapan (PH) in 2020 to form its own separate coalition — Perikatan Nasional (PN).

Yeoh highlighted that new voters — after the Undi18 amendment to the Federal Constitution — will be another wildcard or “the X factor” in GE15.

“This is the X factor, the unknown X factor, because they have not voted before, you can’t even read their mind. You can read it post-election; you can read the mind of the young voters in [the] Johor and Melaka state elections, on the trend, [that] they go towards BN, but the 18-year-olds in KL have not voted, you have not seen the pattern,” she said.

Yeoh said it is necessary for the government to provide better education on the country’s political structure to the younger generation, before they are eligible to vote.

“This is just the first step; our next step will be making sure that the education system empowers the 18-year-old to be able to think independently — that is lacking.

“That’s why I say you need new leadership; [in the case of the] education minister currently, [it] is just the inability to think out-of-the-box,” she lamented.

“If you are not teaching in school before they turn 18, you are not teaching them the difference between MP and ADUN and councilors, [so] you do not expect them to come out and graduate at 18 years old; [that] they somehow will understand this concept of three levels of government,” she added.

Counting down one day to the national poll, it will be interesting to observe how these new voters would choose their administration for the next five years.

Get our comprehensive GE15 coverage here.