The Malaysia’s 12th General Election: Political Marketing Works!

Malaysia has spoken! This phrase aptly describes the results of the 12th general election held on Saturday, 8th of March 2008. The people have decided for the National Alliance, better known as BN, to retain power in the federal and seven states but lost four states (namely Penang, Kedah, Perak and Selangor) and the Federal Territory to the opposition while Kelantan remains under the PAS leadership.

Although still in control with a simple majority win, BN saw its worst election results since 1969. The election also showed a number of BN senior ministers and heavyweights like Datuk Seri S. Sammy Vellu, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin, Datuk M. Kayveas and Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon the door.

Nobody had anticipated the pendulum swing, not the people, not the opposition coalition consists of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Islam Malaysia (PAS) and not even DAP who swept almost all seats contested especially in the state of Penang. Overall, BN secured 140 parliamentary seats while PKR won the most seats for the opposition with 31 seats, followed by DAP with 28 and PAS with 23.

The people decided to stick to a familiar but substantially weaker government and try out an entirely new administration in four states under the alternative government or government-in-waiting as preferred by the PKR adviser, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Many people said that they had enough with what have been going on in the country. They wanted to teach the government a lesson. Rising price of consumer goods, petrol and tolls, the increased cost of living and dissatisfaction on the administration were among the frustrations contributing to the BN severe defeat.

The opposition, on the other hand, capitalized on these issues by applying the philosophy of marketing concept in the campaign. Satisfying the needs and wants of the customers, customer-focused, customer-driven and market oriented constitute the main strategy of the opposition to capture more votes.

Slogan like makhal sakthi (Indian phrase meaning people’s power) focuses on the perspective of the market which is the voters who actually own the power to govern. The marketing concept highlights that satisfying the needs and wants of the people is vital in order for a government to foster harmony in a multi-racial setting.

An element of persuasive advertising was clearly optimized by the opposition. The slogans used in the banners and posters focus on the people not the party, thus employing an outside-in approach. PAS’s Grow with Islam, DAP Just Change It and PKR A New Dawn for Malaysia highlights the importance of the people to the party that they will make a difference. The image used in the banners by the opposition as well portrays specific elements that directly connect with the cause of the respective parties. The image of the PAS spiritual adviser, Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, praying serenely symbolizes the sincerity of the party to serve the people. Similarly, the image of the ousted former deputy prime minister who is now the PKR adviser waving to the people initiating a move by all Malaysians of all races to have a better future, thus a new dawn for Malaysia. On top of that, seeing his image automatically presents an element of sympathy while reflecting his experience in a prison that touches the people’s heart on a whole.

On the contrary, the BN slogan saying There is Only One Choice, Vote for BN and even GERAKAN’s Keep Reinventing are considered an inside-out approach which is seen as boosting about the power the party possesses, boring and unappealing to the people. Instead of strategizing the people as the market, BN used the selling concept that uses the we concept - we are the better government and we can provide you (the people) with many things.

Despite traditional media blackout and bias against them, the opposition employed another strategy which is the use of alternative media in the promotional campaign. In fact, the cyberspace strategy was apparent way before the polling began on saturday. The e-campaign optimized the internet of many forms like youtube, friendster, web-log, blog, website sms and even email aiming to reach voters at work, home and elsewhere only by a click of a button.

This relationship marketing helped in capturing the audience since the e-campaign was specifically tailor-made to suit the target market. The e-campaign made it easy for the opposition to disseminate its ideology, manifesto and missions to the targeted audience regardless of time and space.

Clearly, the application of marketing in a political scenario proves successful. The opposition managed to dilute the BN dominance by capturing more seats to form the alternative government in a number of states.

In fact, the Parliament of Malaysia will have a louder voice in the opposition to check and balance and debate important issues more vigorously rather than rubber-stamping legislations. The BN government has to seriously learn some lessons from the election outcome and not underestimate the power of marketing.

The silent majority has finally spoken. The bottom line is, Malaysia expects more transparency, accountability and good governance instituted by the government both at the federal and state levels. More importantly, the people expect to be treated well since customer is the king!