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Malaysia's 14th general election and UMNO's fall : intra-elite feuding in the pursuit of power
\"The 2018 Malaysian General Election will stand as a major defining event in Malaysian history, when the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition unexpectedly lost power in the country they had ruled for over half a century. This volume brings together scholars who assess one fundamental factor that brought about this game-changing event in Malaysian politics: intra-elite feuding in the leading Malay-based political parties. This study provides an analysis of individual state politics as well as national trends shaped by the actions of leaders in government and the opposition. An indispensable guide for scholars studying the politics of Malaysia and of Southeast Asia more broadly, it will be of great interest for all readers with an interest in Malaysian politics\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
DEMOCRATIZING LOCAL GOVERNMENT: WHAT MALAYSIA CAN LEARN FROM MEXICO AND INDIA
The Pakatan Harapan 2018 election manifesto had established commitments to strengthen the authority of local government, and to make local councils more accountable. This suggested that the local government elections would resume, after an absence of more than 60 years. While the Pakatan Harapan’s tenure as Malaysia’s ruling government was short-lived, their rise to power did put the local government back into the spotlight, as well as elevated the prospects of the resumption of local government elections in the country. There are a number of reasons that supports a more democratic and participatory approach to local government which has been highly hoped for in Malaysia. These include the view that it discourages public malfeasance and produces local officials that are more responsive to the needs of the citizens they serve. However, there are challenges that follow with the introduction of a more democratic form of local government, especially for countries that are attempting to transition from authoritarianism to a democracy at the national level, and contain a diverse multi-ethnic population of differing socio-economic backgrounds. In order to better understand what these challenges are and how they can be overcome, this study examines two case studies, Mexico and India. These two countries have shown some similarities to Malaysia, particularly with regards to regime-type and demographics. This study considers the evolving approach taken by these two countries on their local government, in terms of their structure and practices. It is proposed that the case studies could provide potential lessons for Malaysia. This study begins with a brief historical overview of the system of local government in Malaysia to present day. This is followed by a discussion of the uneven experiences of Mexico and India on the efforts to democratize their local governments. The findings from the examination of both the case studies reveal the manner for which the countries with an authoritarian past often undergo during a transitional period, whereby although the structures of local governance have become more democratic, local officials and citizens are remain trapped in the old authoritarian modes of behavior. Unless interventionist steps are taken, democratizing local government structures alone do not necessarily lead to greater citizen empowerment, especially for those from the more marginalized sections of society.
Journal Article
Scrutinizing the DAP's Success in the 2023 Malaysian State Elections
Following the formation of the Unity Government in December 2022, two of its component coalitions, Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN), jointly campaigned during the state government elections held in August 2023. A key question arising from this cooperation between PH and the BN lead party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), was the extent to which it would strengthen the appeal of both coalitions, especially among Malay voters.
eBook
Public Perceptions of the Election Commission, Election Management and Democracy in Malaysia
This report presents findings from a nationwide face-to-face survey of 2, 627 Malaysians between March and April 2021 regarding public perceptions on the Election Commission (EC) and on election management.Malaysians by and large hold a cautious, moderate affirmation of the state of democracy in Malaysia, and of it having made notable progress over the past decade. A quarter of respondents regard the 2018 general election to be very free or/and fair, while 43 per cent think that it was free/fair though not without problems. This perception appears to have been influenced by the fact that there was a change of federal government.Public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the election management process and the EC is weakly affirmative, as revealed by a majority expressing a lack of confidence in an eventual online voting system being handled transparently. Urban residents generally have greater distrust in state institutions.Some notable contrasts in regional trends: -- Sarawakians have a high level of trust in state institutions. -- Sabahans have the lowest appreciation for the progress made in the state of democracy in the country, the lowest satisfaction with civil liberty, or the lowest trust in state institutions except for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the EC.-- West Malaysians have the lowest level of trust in the MACC and EC but express the highest level of appreciation for the progress that have made in the state of democracy.
eBook
GE14
In Malaysia’s last general election, urban voters tended to support the opposition coalition — 72 of the 97 urban parliamentary seats were in fact won by it. However, most of these seats have a mixed demography, with a high percentage of ethnic Chinese voters. In the upcoming general election, Pakatan has a good chance of winning the federal government if Malay voters join their Chinese counterparts in supporting the opposition coalition. A subsequent so-called “Malay tsunami” could lead to a Pakatan victory. This present study, which is based on a series of focus group discussions held in the Malaysian states of Kedah and Johor, finds that urban Malay voters are very unhappy with the economic condition of the country and are also worried about corruption. But despite their grouses, they are still uncertain about supporting the opposition coalition due to the fear of losing the race-based privileges they enjoy as ethnic Malays.
eBook
Malaysia's General Elections 2018
This study was carried out in Johor and Kedah through a combination of focus groups, formal and informal interviews and long-term ethnographic participant observation. Johor was selected for this study because it is the birthplace and long-time bastion of UMNO while Kedah was of interest because of the Mahathir family legacy in the state. The study shows that the rural vote is not homogeneous, views and perceptions that could lead to electoral action differs between regions, ages and genders. Daily survival and rising costs of living are the key common issues that were raised across all regions. The importance of Malay rights and the priority of Islam are also important to the rural voter. Another common problem mentioned is that of the middleman who prevents allocated funds or financial assistance from reaching the average rural resident. Malay cultural norms, traditional obligations of loyalty and patronage politics are major factors that affect the decisions of older rural voters. Younger voters might be open to the idea of a new government, but they need to overcome community and family pressure to break away from generational practices of voting for Barisan Nasional. Some rural voters feel that they gain no benefits from having either side of the political divide in power. While these voters generally do not see the point of voting, a last-minute decision to vote may go the way of the party that provides them with immediate gains.
eBook
Power Games
The unprecedented results of the 2008 national elections took many Malaysians by surprise. The component parties of the ruling coalition suffered huge losses, while the opposition was victorious in several states. Many media scholars and political pundits, including politicians, pointed to the online platform as a democratic tool that had increased support for the opposition. In the 2013 election the ruling party turned its spotlight on new media to try to regain voter support.
In order to obtain a better understanding of the much-touted democratizing effects of the online media, this book employs an alternative lens to examine the use of new media at the intersection of social and political realities. It explores the ways individual political bloggers, Facebookers and Twitterers used cyberspace to battle for voter support in the 2008 and 2013 national elections. It examines the cultural practices and the social and political affiliation and aims of individual actors, as well as the social ties that subsequently emerged from the use of the online media. This research employs a political economy approach to the media, Habermasi's notion of the public sphere, and the social determinism perspective in order to understand the extent to which online media can enrich political life and bring about new ways of campaigning.
eBook
Electoral Dynamics in Sarawak
Based upon observation of the 2016 Sarawak state elections at a time of political turmoil for the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, Electoral Dynamics in Sarawak offers four ethnographic accounts of grassroots electoral politics in diverse constituencies of Sarawak. Covering Ba' Kelalan, the rural stronghold of Sarawak Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People's Justice Party) leader Baru Bian; Tupong, the urban Malay-majority stronghold of the PBB; Stakan, a mixed constituency in which postal votes proved decisive; and Repok and Meradong, rural Chinese majority constituencies caught between the Sarawak United People's Party and the Democratic Action Party, this volume exposes the diversity and complexity of Sarawak's electoral geography. Central to the analyses in this volume are not only the role of ethnicity and the urban/rural divide but also the longer term impact of the politics of developmentalism, the personality politics surrounding Chief Minister Adenan Satem and the emerging force of Sarawakian states' rights enshrined in the Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) social movement. Part of a comparative study of electoral dynamics across Southeast Asia, Electoral Dynamics in Sarawak seeks both to analyse the wider lessons to be learned from the 2016 Sarawak state elections as well as to deepen our knowledge and understanding of a state which is likely to play an especially important role in the political future of Malaysia.
eBook
Coalitions in Collision
After the watershed 2008 election when the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition lost its customary two-thirds control of parliamentary seats, there was the not unreasonable expectation that BN would slip even further in the much-anticipated Thirteenth General Election of 2013, which is the subject of this book. In the event, the BN lost the popular vote to the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) but still retained the reins of government. In this book, prominent Malaysian specialists and experts will provide the reader with fresh insights into the evolving character of electoral politics by delving into its failing model of consociationalism, the extent of malapportionment in the electoral system and its effects on outcomes, how 'new politics' continue to meet the resistance of old modes of political behaviour, the path-dependence analysis of twin-coalition politics, the significance of the FELDA vote bank, the issues animating electoral politics in Sabah, Sarawak, Terengganu and Johor, why the PR continues to command urban support, the role of the biased mainstream media, and details of the campaign strategies of both coalitions. In this new study of Malaysia's electoral politics, it is evident that the ruling coalition has lost its first-mover advantage and is only able to hold on to power due to the first-past-the-post (FPTP) single member plurality electoral system. This sort of system has given rise, in the parlance of electoral studies, to 'manufactured majorities', that is, electoral outcomes that confer a majority of seats (simple or large) to a single party or a coalition of parties without commanding a majority of the popular vote. Malaysia's FPTP system, imbued as it is with a generous proportion of 'rural weightage', continues to favour the BN, oftentimes generating large manufactured parliamentary majorities. While some may argue that electoral politics have reached an impasse, after two general elections, Malaysia's twin-coalition system seems to have gained some traction and, thanks to its federalism, with the PR having considerable control of state governments in the Malay heartland and of the more urbanized states of Selangor and Penang.
eBook