BY SYED JAYMAL ZAHIID
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While political
analysts tend to disagree about whether or not character defamation can sway
public opinion, there is consensus that sex scandals can still inflict some
degree of damage even if the electorate appears to have matured politically. —
Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — The latest sex video
scandal engulfing Pakatan Harapan (PH) may not shake the ruling coalition’s
moderate base but will definitely put a spanner in its efforts to court more
conservative Malay votes, analysts said.
Set against the background of growing public frustration with PH’s
flip-flopping on key election pledges, a sex scandal — manufactured or not —
could have adverse political consequences for the four-party bloc in the long
run.
“Today, when political literacy is higher than
before, we have higher expectations that the public is more rational when
evaluating news,” Sivamurugan Pandian, political analyst at Universiti Sains
Malaysia, told Malay Mail.
“But at the same time, there are some who will
be emotional as we are a nation strongly bound by religious values.”
Several videos of roughly 90 seconds each began
circulating on social media early Tuesday morning, just days after the Hari
Raya break, that showed two men having sex. One of the men allegedly bore a
resemblance to a senior Cabinet minister.
Then in the early hours of Wednesday morning, a Haziq Aziz posted a
video on Facebook, confessing to being the man having sex with the minister.
At the same time, he accused the minister of
corruption and urged the MACC to investigate the latter.
Immediately after, politicians from both sides
of the divide came out to condemn those responsible for the video clip, calling
it “vile”, “filth” and an attempt at character assassination.
They urged the public not to share or spread it
on the internet, although in just two days the short clips, initially spread
through WhatsApp, had already gone viral.
Sivamurugan said the country is long familiar
with gutter politics, noting that many similar scandals had surfaced in the
past.
But while sex scandals involving high profile
politicians appear to draw less interest through the years, it is difficult to
gauge its influence on voting attitudes.
“In politics, negative advertising or black PR
has existed for a long time,” he said.
“I don’t know to what extent public awareness is
to draw a line in accepting personalised politics or focus on credibility to
lead.”
One of the most notable sex videos that
implicated another PKR leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, was released during
his second sodomy trial in 2011.
At the time, a survey held by influential
pollster Merdeka Center found half of respondents admitting that the clip
affected their confidence towards the party even as the same number said they
were unsure of the clip’s authenticity.
PKR went into the 13th general election losing
nearly half the seats it won in the preceding polls, although it is unclear if
the sex clip or sodomy allegations that hovered over the former deputy prime
minister had any bearing on the outcome.
But while political analysts tend to disagree
about whether or not character defamation can sway public opinion, there is
consensus that sex scandals can still inflict some degree of damage even if the
electorate appears to have matured politically.
“It will definitely ignite the feeling of
disgust towards (the minister),” Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia political
analyst Kartini Aboo Talib said, citing public response to the video on social media
that called PKR “Parti Kunyit Rakyat.”
Kunyit is the derogatory Malay street term used to describe homosexuals or
transgenders similar to the English word “fag.”
“The moment the person... made a confession,
nobody can claim it’s an accusation or hoax video.”
But other analysts like Oh Ei Sun, a senior
fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, felt that the video
or confession would have little impact other than reinforce the prejudices of
the warring political factions.
“The recalcitrant conservative elements in
Malaysia would anyway never be persuaded unless they get their way in leading
Malaysia along a theocratic path,” Oh said.
“PH core supporters who are more open-minded I
think can separate the public deeds of politicians from their private lives.”
Since Haziq Aziz’s confession video, Datuk Seri
Azmin Ali has made a statement denying he is the other man in the video and
called the whole thing an attempt to destroy his political career.
A second wave of sex video and photographs were
released last night even as PKR leaders met to discuss the scandal.
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