PENDEKATAN ISLAM HADHARI DAN PILIHAN RAYA UMUM KE-12

Abstract

The 12th Malaysian General Election on 8 March 2008 ended with the ruling National Front suffering a rather humiliating defeat in the history of the coalition. Many factors have been discussed for this unprecedented outcom. In the 11th Malaysian General Election in 2004, an important element that was incorporated in the Front's manifested was the implementation of the approach of Islam Hadhari, due to which, UMNO particularly managed to win the election with a resounding victory by even taking over Terengganu from PAS. When the Front suffered setbacks in 2008, some believed that it was due to the rejection among people of the approach of Islam Hadhari. Based on the feebacks from 3,443 respondents in a fieldwork survey conducted in May-July 2008, it is found that the Malays were equally divided between those who believed this was the contributing factor and otherwise. Similarly, the survey also shows that a bigger percentage of the respondents believe that the approach will only be implemented under Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration and would not be relevant after the 12th General Election.