Pilihan Raya Umum (PRU) 2013 di Malaysia: Suatu analisis ‘tsunami politik bandar’ (Malaysia’s General Election (GE) 2013: An analysis of urban political 'tsunami')

Abstract

Pilihan Raya Umum (PRU) pada tahun 2013 merupakan PRU paling sengit dalam sejarah pilihan raya umum di Malaysia dan disifatkan sebagai ‘ibu’ kepada kesemua 13 PRU yang telah diadakan di negara ini. Walaupun dalam PRU ke-13 ini BN berjaya mengekalkan status quo di peringkat nasional dengan memenangi 133 kerusi Parlimen dan 275 kerusi DUN namun mengalami penurunan penguasaan jumlah kerusi di kedua-dua perwakilan tersebut. BN juga seterusnya gagal mendapat majoriti dua pertiga kerusi Parlimen selain tumpas di Pulau Pinang, Selangor dan Kelantan. Lebih menarik apabila Pakatan Rakyat (PR), iaitu gabungan parti PKR, DAP dan PAS, berjaya menguasai 12 daripada 14 kerusi Parlimen di kawasan bandar ibu negeri. Fenomena ini digelar ‘tsunami politik bandar’. Justeru itu, adalah menjadi tujuan penulisan artikel ini untuk menganalisis faktor yang menyebabkan berlakunya ‘tsumani politik bandar’ dalam PRU 2013 di Malaysia. Analisis data keputusan PRU 2004, 2008 dan 2013 menunjukkan bahawa ‘tsunami politik bandar’ berlaku disebabkan oleh faktor akses pengundi bandar kepada sumber maklumat politik daripada media alternatif seperti facebook, twitter, laman web, blog dan juga SMS di samping faktor sokongan padu pengundi etnik Cina bandar dan sokongan golongan profesional dan pengundi muda kepada PR. Kos sara hidup yang tinggi dan manifesto PR yang berjanji mahu menurunkan harga bahan api, menurunkan harga kereta, mewujudkan pentadbiran yang lebih adil dan telus juga menjadi faktor kemenangan PR dalam PRU ke-13 di kawasan bandar.

Katakunci: calon, etnik, media alternatif, pilihan raya umum, politik bandar, sumber maklumat politik

The 2013 General Election is the most intense in the history of general elections in Malaysia and as such regarded as the 'mother' to all the thirteen general elections ever held in this country. In this GE although BN maintained the status quo at the national level by winning 133 parliamentary seats and 275 state seats it experienced a decline in both representative seats. BN also failed to get two thirds majority in the parliament besides loosing the states of Selangor, Pulau Pinang and Kelantan. Even more interesting, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) comprising PKR, DAP and PAS managed to capture 12 of the 14 state capital parliamentary seats. This phenomenon has been widely known as an urban political’tsunami'. This article examines the factors that had influenced the Malaysian urban political ‘tsumani' in the last 13th General Elections. Analyses of election data for years 2004, 2008 and 2013 and those of secondary data from various sources showed that the urban political 'tsunami' was due to the increase in the access level of urban voters to political information which was widely available in the alternative media such as facebook, twitter, websites, blogs and SMS in addition to the solid support of Chinese voters as well as overwhelming supports from professionals and young voters. The high cost of urban living regarding which the PR manifesto importantly promised to bring down fuel and car prices and to promote fair and transparent governance had also been influential in ensuring the PR’s victory in the general elections.

Keywords: alternative media, candidate, election, ethnicity, political information, urban politics