The influencers of MA63

Prior to GE-14, the Malaysia Agreement or in its short form MA63 was often raised by politicians to attract votes. As we can see from the influencers list, most of the people who talked on the topic are from Barisan Nasional as of that time.

Sarawak Chief Minister Johari Openg was the most active politicians to address MA63. The second spot was helmed by Najib Razak with 536 statements, while Mahathir Mohamad only gave 97 statements. Interestingly, Warisan president Shafie Apdal did not made it to the top influencers list at that time.

Besides Johari, politicians from East Malaysia who spoke on MA63 are Anifah Aman, Abdul Rahman Dahlan and Salleh Said Keruak. During that period, three of them shared a similarity of being a Minister. Respectively, they are Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economic Planning Unit) and Minister of Communications and Multimedia. As of today, all of them have left Barisan Nasional. Additionally, Anifah and Salleh have also left UMNO.

MA63 became a hot issue in the media during the general election season. Nevertheless, the topic never disappeared in the media throughout the year. The second time the issue peak was in September, the month Malaysia celebrate Malaysia Day.

The influencers of MA63 in September have changed when compared to before GE-14. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has taken the lead with 780 statements, while former Prime Minister Najib Razak has disappeared from the list.

Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal has emerged in the list, taking the second position with 147 statements, while Sarawak Chief Minister Johari Openg did not become the top influencers.

Anifah Aman remains active, taking the second spot with 191 statements, but Salleh Keruak and Rahman Dahlan were missing. Minister of Economic Affairs Azmin Ali has joined the list with 127 statement, placing him at the fifth place.

In December, the influencers list does not change much as Mahathir, Azmin, Shafie, Anifah and Johari remains active in MA63 topic.

Some politicians were active to honour the MA63 but only on certain period. Do they really mean it when they said that they want to honour the agreement? Or they are just politicizing MA63 to gather supports from the East Malaysians?