Social movements in contemporary Malaysia

Govindasamy, Anantha Raman

doi:10.4324/9781315756240-12

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Finally came the show of strength of the Hindu Rights Action Front (HINDRAF), an ad hoc committee of 30 Indian NGOs formed in January 2006 to “create a discursive forum among hitherto divided Indian organizations” (Govindasamy 2015: 119). Initially, HINDRAF did not have an anti-regime agenda.…”

Section: A Decade Of Resistance To Oligarchy (1998–2008)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Political Turbulence and Stalemate in Contemporary Malaysia: Oligarchic Reconstitutions and Insecurities

Khoo

2018

TRaNS

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Malaysian politics has been turbulent over the past two decades, as seen in the damaged tradition of leadership transition, non-violent revolts against successive regimes, and unstable realignments of opposing forces. Two startling symptoms point to disorder. One is the heavy electoral losses and loss of legitimacy suffered by the post-Mahathir regimes. The other is the political re-entry of Anwar Ibrahim and Mahathir Mohamad. The persisting turbulence raises certain questions. Why has the ruling party, the United Malays National Organization, been susceptible to internal fighting, being at once a source of hegemonic stability and systemic instability? Why has the apex of the United Malays National Organization repeatedly jeopardised its traditions of leadership succession? Why has one leader, Mahathir Mohamad, been involved in all the disputes? How did the crisis of the party, not just the regime, become intimately tied to economic crisis? Conventional paradigmatic explanations of Malaysian politics – inter-ethnic rivalry in a plural society, elite solidarity, and regime type (semi-democratic, hybrid, or competitive authoritarian) – are of little help even if ethnicity, elite conduct, and authoritarian rule are relevant. Instead, this essay suggests that the turbulence is part of a long trajectory of oligarchic reconstitution bound to a peculiar nexus of state, ethnicity, and class. The paper does not construct a theory of Malaysian politics. It offers a historically informed exploration of a leitmotif of an unfinished project that runs through much of the past 20 years of political conflict and struggle.

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Section: A Decade Of Resistance To Oligarchy (1998–2008)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The likewise ‘illegal’ HINDRAF march proceeded in defiance of police assault and arrests. Overnight, HINDRAF galvanised an Indian rejection of MIC leaders’ acceptance of the Indian condition in obedience to UMNO (Govindasamy 2015: 119).…”

Section: A Decade Of Resistance To Oligarchy (1998–2008)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Turbulence and Stalemate in Contemporary Malaysia: Oligarchic Reconstitutions and Insecurities

Khoo

2018

TRaNS

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Perception, Knowledge, And Acceptance Of Rome Statute In Malaysia

Sualman¹,

Jalli²

2019

Proceedings of the International Conference of Democratisation in Southeast Asia (ICDeSA 2019)

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On April 5, 2019, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad announced that Malaysia would withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute) citing that the government was forced to do so due to political pressure. In Malaysia, the ratification of the Rome Statute was said to be able to undermine the power of the Malay Kings. Rome Statute is a treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC) that came into force in 2002. Any country that signs the Rome Statute fundamentally agrees to recognize the powers of the ICC. The treaty gives jurisdiction to ICC to penalize four specific crimes as stated in Article 5 of the statute which are 1) genocide, 2) crime against humanity, 3) war crimes, and 4) crimes of aggression. To date, 122 countries across the world are part of the convention. Malaysia's decision to withdraw from the treaty has been scrutinized by critics, asserting that the government has taken a step backward civil progressiveness. Today, Malaysia is among the minority of the countries that have yet to ratify the Rome Statute alongside countries like North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia. This research aims to look at the acceptance of the Rome Statute in Malaysia. A series of interviews were conducted to explore the perception, knowledge, and acceptance of the statute as well as the reactions on Malaysia's decision to withdraw from the treaty. It was found that while some of the informants supportive of Rome Statute, citing ICC as a complement to the existing law in Malaysia and serving as check-and-balance, others opposed the idea of the treaty ratification. Among the reasons found was, the statute will undermine the power of Malay Rulers and will cause discord among people of different races.

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Social movements in contemporary Malaysia

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Political Turbulence and Stalemate in Contemporary Malaysia: Oligarchic Reconstitutions and Insecurities

Political Turbulence and Stalemate in Contemporary Malaysia: Oligarchic Reconstitutions and Insecurities

Perception, Knowledge, And Acceptance Of Rome Statute In Malaysia

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