Although a majority of Malaysians still say that issues about race and religion concern them, such issues are losing their salience in elections, according to International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) associate professor Marzuki Mohamad.

Instead, he said issues related to cost of living are climbing to the top of the list of people’s concerns, which would have implications for BN’s electoral strategy.

“In the 1990s and the 1980s, BN could score on delivering development. They called it ‘performance legitimacy’ – at least the BN government performs.

“But lately, because of all the problems with cost-of-living issues, they can no longer rely on performance. The economy is bad, so you as a voter - why would you vote for BN, for example.

“So, you can see now that the emphasis is more on race and religion […] Race and religion are being played up more extensively to counter the fact that they are not performing...