Authoritarian innovations and democratic reform in the “New Malaysia”

Dettman, Sebastian

doi:10.1080/13510347.2019.1705791

Cited by 24 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…During the reign of Dr Mahathir, Malaysia faced this challenge as his actions in interfering in the affairs of the executive, legislative, and judicial institutions led to the corruption ofthese institutions. For example, Mahathir used executive institutions to interfere with government bureaucracy and the civil service to strengthen BN's position (Hwang 2003;Dettman 2020). Legislative institutions were used to amend acts and laws that can threaten his authority.…”

Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Malaysian Political Development in the Era of Najib Razak

Ali¹,

Yusof²

2022

Akademika

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This article utilises Huntington's concept of political development to access the political development in Malaysia during the era of Najib Razak. Three main indices were used to measure political development, namely institutionalisation, mobilisation, and economic growth. The data for this article were obtained from primary sources through interviews with authoritative informants, as well as secondary sources from books, journals, official government reports and news portals. Findings revealed that in terms of political institutionalisation, Najib Razak failed in forming strong and efficient government institutions in the executive, legislative and judicial branches. This failure suggests that Malaysia's political institutionalisation has been corrupted. In addition, it was discovered that the political mobilisation during this era was passive. This is because Najib controlled the freedom of the media and speech, as well as restricted the civil rights of the people. In terms of economic growth, no significant changes were observed over the previous government in terms of GDP, per capita income, and poverty reduction of the people due to abuse of power, 1MDB scandal, malpractice, and secretive governance. The political decay later led to the defeat of Barisan Nasional for the first time in Malaysia's political history since its independence in 1957.

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Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Malaysian Political Development in the Era of Najib Razak

Ali¹,

Yusof²

2022

Akademika

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“…UMNO and PAS, now both in the opposition, teamed up against the PH. They accused the PH adopting policies that were too liberal and progressive – policies that would undermine the existing dominance of the Malay-Muslim community and enhance the political power of the secularist DAP (Dettman, 2020). In February 2020, the PH government eventually collapsed after factions within PPBM and PKR defected to join UMNO and PAS in an all-new Malay-Muslim government, freezing out Malaysia’s ethno-religious minorities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What are we voting for? Opposition alliance joint campaigns in electoral autocracies

Ong

2021

Party Politics

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Existing analyses of opposition pre-electoral alliance formation in electoral autocracies neglect their coordinated election campaigns against incumbent autocrats. This paper argues that opposition alliance joint campaigns can increase the salience of the anti-regime cleavage, signal mutual compromise, and highlight the positive material and policy gains voters will reap following regime defeat. Together, they persuade ideologically and ethnically disparate opposition supporters to engage in the cross-party strategic voting necessary to maximize opposition vote share and their chances of winning. Empirical findings from Malaysia’s historic 2018 general elections support the theory’s propositions. A pre-electoral survey experiment estimates that an opposition alliance’s joint campaigns increases cross-party strategic voting by about 10 percentage points among opposition voters. Field interviews and ethnographic observation during the election campaigning revealed the diverse methods and mechanisms of joint campaigns. Malaysia’s Pakatan Harapan opposition alliance eventually prevailed through a combination of joint campaigning against a flailing incumbent.

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“…It is also by definition central to the Malay identity 10 . In many political contexts, the shared Muslim identity effectively bridges regional divides, for example, in late 2018 when UMNO and PAS mobilized Islamic grassroots groups to protest against the new Pakatan Harapan government, which they claimed was hostile to Islam (Dettman, 2020). In other contexts, however, issues of narrow importance to the Northeast have allowed that regional identity to overshadow the crosscutting Islamic cleavage in political discourse.…”

Section: Historical Origins Of Competing Identities In Malaysiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional identity formation in Malaysia: Primacy of the political center and its essentialized ethnic identities

Ostwald

Subhan

2021

Asian Politics and Policy

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Contemporary Malaysia is an amalgamation of regions with distinct historical origins and features that provide the raw material for strong regional identities. The Malay‐Muslim nature of the nation‐building project led by the dominant United Malays Nasional Organisation (UMNO) has reified regional identities by sharpening the contrast between them and Malaysia’s political center. Yet while regional identities are often pronounced, Malaysian politics are highly centralized, and neither deep fragmentation along regional lines nor meaningful secessionist movements have materialized. That results from Malaysia’s institutional features and the primacy of highly essentialized, trans‐regional ethno‐religious identities. This article examines the process of regional and ethnic identity formation, which has occurred in an endogenous manner that draws from and reinforces the dominance of UMNO and its political heartland. It argues that the embrace of the ethno‐religious identities has enabled the primacy of Malay‐Muslim considerations in national political discourse and consequently crowded out particularistic regional demands.

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Authoritarian innovations and democratic reform in the “New Malaysia”

Cited by 24 publications

References 29 publications

Malaysian Political Development in the Era of Najib Razak

Malaysian Political Development in the Era of Najib Razak

What are we voting for? Opposition alliance joint campaigns in electoral autocracies

Regional identity formation in Malaysia: Primacy of the political center and its essentialized ethnic identities

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