The ‘battle of manifestos’ has begun with the launching of the Barisan Nasional (BN) ‘Aku Janji’ on Saturday to counter the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) version unveiled two months ago.

Analysts Astro AWANI spoke to believe that voters would be paying more attention to these documents in the that the 13th General Election though it remains only a minor, but still significant, factor in their decision-making process.

While they said both BN and PR have included a slew of goodies that are considered voter-luring and ‘populist’ measures, the two analysts also noted that there were certain issues that both coalitions were afraid to tread on.

Political analyst Khoo Kay Peng said that the issue of the bloated civil service which requires trimming has been sidestepped by both as it may incur the backlash of a sizable portion of the electorate.

“On the reforms of the 1.4million strong civil service, it’s work culture, by restructuring what is overlapping. For example, the Prime Minister’s Office has quite a number of staff for a single department,” said Khoo.

Khoo also said that another issue that he felt the BN and Pakatan coalition did not address in their manifestos was on the issues surrounding religion.

“Religion is a very important hotspot and politicians have not sincerely resolved the Allah issue, which is because both sides are trying to take advantage of the situation. Perkasa had called for Bibles to be burnt and DAP’s Lim Guan Eng was reminding Christians of it during Christmas day,” he said.

On the issue of reforming or abolishing affirmative action, Khoo said that despite Pakatan Rakyat talking about it, the opposition coalition did not include it in its campaign statement.

“They have been talking about abolishing the NEP, it died off when we look at the manifesto,” he said.

Khoo also said that his greatest fear when both coalitions go into this ‘historical battle’ was that populist policies that include more subsidies and grants would take centrestage.

“These include things like Pakatan’s giving out money to single mothers, cancelling of the PTPTN, BN’s BR1M payouts and both talking about reducing car prices. These are things that would translate into further economic burden for the country,” he said.

Khoo also criticised Pakatan’s proposal for a higher minimum wage of RM1,100 but at the same time taking a RM2billion from other tax payers money, and their plan to lower petrol prices.

“While we are trying to solve the national budget problem with financial reforms, things like these would make it even more unachievable,” he said.

Despite the weaknesses, Khoo concluded that the election manifesto would work better for the BN government as there are “a few things that are very attractive.”

“Of course, BN has the advantage of being the incumbent. All the resources are at their fingertips,” he said.

At the end of the day, however, Khoo said that promises of both political coalitions would only account for only 30 % of the campaigning and other issues such as corruption will take centre stage.

Meanwhile, analyst Ibrahim Suffian also agreed that both manifestos appear to be populist, and listed out certain areas where one or the other have not discussed thoroughly, more notably broader structural issues.

“What’s notable in the BN manifesto is that direct cash payments such as BR1M and book vouchers are featured prominently. These underlines BN’s strategy to address concerns on cost of living,” he said.

Ibrahim also noted that issues that the polling centre he heads (Merdeka Centre) has picked up, such as affordable housing and public transportation, is also discussed in the BN manifesto.

“I think it has successfully talked about a number of the rakyat’s concerns. However, I think there are some other areas that it doesn’t go far enough in addressing, particularly on good governance, though it does talk about fighting corruption, fundamental problems are not addressed,” he said.

Ibrahim also said that BN’s manifesto seem to be silent on stamping out monopoly or closed tenders, something that the Opposition is harping on.

“What we can observe is that BN manifesto is a very detailed account of its achievements, and how it intends to improve what is already in place.”

“However, Pakatan Rakyat, because they are not the incumbent are proposing revamp and is geared towards systemic problems,” he said.

Ibrahim said that the public would be interested to see more broad themes such as plans to address: the long term economic growth of the country, issues faced by different income groups, keeping Malaysia an attractive investment destination, safety, and improving overall good governance.

On how important the manifestos will be in the run up to polling day, Ibrahim said: “This is something that people take in, but may not completely influence them. There are also factors such as the political parties and also candidates.

“But it is important enough to clue in voters as to what kind of administration would take place.

“My stance is that even if a small proportion of the voters influence their choice it is still significant in this hotly contested election.”