Manifesto, election main attraction

Political analyst, Professor Madya Dr Shaharuddin Badaruddin said that the ongoing manifesto debate among the people is the new attraction in the upcoming election campaign.

"What interesting this time around is the debate will be centred on the manifesto even though we know there will be 'gutter politics' campaign, slander campaign, personal campaign and 'personal assassination' campaign. It is there," he said to Astro Awani after his interview in Agenda Awani on Monday.

The Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) political science lecturer said, both Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) are trying to make their manifesto became reality.

Besides that, Dr Shaharuddin also said that, the role of both political parties is to make the manifesto easy to understand.

“The manifestos can be made easy and being understood by the citizens. If the document is given directly to the citizens, no one going to read it,” he said.

He also added that, by making the manifesto easier to understand will make it more marketable and helps as a new campaign strategy.

Dr Shaharuddin also said the culture of offering the best manifesto to the people is a new trend among Malaysian.

However, he said citizens should discipline themselves by listening to more political speeches that are based on true facts and more intellectual thoughts because some of the speeches are too focusing on sensational issues which he said is bad for the nation.