Politics of Floods and Fear During Pre-15th General Election in Malaysia: An Analysis

Abstract

UMNO's call to put pressure on the Malaysian government, under the leadership of Ismail Sabri, to hold the GE15 during the flood season, which is expected to start in November 2022 until March 2023, was observed to have surprised many parties. In fact, this call was responded to by Ismail Sabri's announcement in the UMNO assembly stating that the parliament will be dissolved in the near future to make way for the GE15, which also confirmed that it was likely that the election would be held during the flood season in Malaysia. Finally, on October 10, 2022, Ismail Sabri announced the dissolution of the 14th parliament and confirmed that the GE15 will be held during the flood season in Malaysia. This announcement has created an atmosphere of panic and fear among the people because Malaysia will generally be hit by a flood season during the specified period. Therefore, this research aims to identify how the flood season affects the ideas for the GE15. The conceptual framework proposed in this research is political distrust of the government and the setting of political agendas that will influence voters’ behaviour. This research is relevant and has its own importance due to the fact that research related to floods during the general election in Malaysia has not been carried out before. It provides a new approach when focusing on how floods affect the course of elections in Malaysia, in addition to introducing a new landscape in national politics. The results of this study found that the GE15 in Malaysia will most likely not represent the true voice of the people of this country because it is held during the flood season. This is because it would have reduced the voting percentage due to weather factors that may cause people to refuse to go out to vote. In conclusion, the politics of flood and fear have the potential to influence voters’ behaviour of going out to vote or otherwise, and would have an impact on the outcome of the election results.