The big question that will be answered tomorrow in the Kuala Kubu Baharu (KKB) state seat elections is whether the status quo will remain and DAP wins, or change and DAP loses.

For DAP candidate Pang Sock Tao to lose, there should be a significant swing of Malay and non-Malay votes to the Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Khairul Azhari Saut.

The conservative Malay vote has more or less reached the maximum and guaranteed for PN. To win, PN needs to swing the non-committal moderate Malay votes to its side. With the kind of rhetoric that PN leaders Muhyiddin Yassin and Abdul Hadi Awang have been spewing out, it can only be hoped that it has not turned off the moderate Malays and the non-Malays.

These leaders have not understood that such rhetoric is simply being heard by the already converted.

If the moderate Malays and non-Malays fail to materialise the swing to PN it would be a costly lesson to PN that its strategies failed to reach out to these groups who would have given them the victory they need.

In the KKB state elections, however, despite PN’s failings mainly due to inexperience, the hope is that the voters will see beyond the tried and useless political rhetoric.

After one-and-a-half years of an appointed and unelected unity government with nothing to show except daily compromises of democratic principles evident to all, with no benefit to the people, voters must realise that they must vote to signal a change.

The unity government cannot offer them anything more than they have already received. Even with a PN candidate in the seat, that may not change. Voters need to understand that in the absence of federal policies to generate incomes for lower-income segments, the current situation will not change.

But, a vote for PN in KKB may herald a change in the state government that ultimately will benefit them and send a strong message to the incumbent federal government that the people don’t support it and thus increase the possibilities of a change of government which will inevitably fill their rice bowl and eventually enlarge it.

Non-Malay voters, however, from past experience, may not be convinced that their rice bowls will be filled and enlarged, and, may choose the DAP as the lesser of the two evils. That is a misconception and may turn against them in the immediate future.

It’s this attitude that caused the DAP to win 42 seats for Pakatan Harapan in the 2022 general elections, but what benefits are the non-Malays getting now? Just more heartaches.

If the non-Malays organised themselves and appointed capable leaders who can engage with PN representatives to find creative solutions to their problems without indebting themselves to PH’s strong backers who have the means to give free land and such, they will be well taken care of and remain free to vote as they please.

The key is not what help the government can give but how they, especially the Indians, can organise themselves to get the help they need while remaining independent and free. Indian voters, especially, must understand this and give themselves a chance to escape a life where they may not be free to vote freely.

If moderate Malays and non-Malays see that giving Bersatu the chance to work with them will be the democratic ways to improving their lives, then, they must understand that a vote for PN is, in fact, a vote for the good of all Malaysia, not just a few multi-cultural groups.

A better life for all Malaysia may not happen immediately; but it will happen as Bersatu gains experience and becomes the dominant party in PN.

A future with PN with the mandate of all Malaysians is any time better than a future with a PH-led government without the mandate of the majority and subservient to its backers.