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Further Reading

Malaysia Politics

Population density is highest in peninsular Malaysia, home to some 20 million of the country's 27 million inhabitants. The remaining 7 million live on the Malaysian portion of the island of Borneo in the large but less densely-populated states of Sabah and Sarawak. More than half of Sarawak's residents and about two-thirds of Sabah's are from indigenous groups. Malaysia's multi-racial society contains many ethnic groups. Malays comprise a majority of just over 50%. By constitutional definition, all Malays are Muslim. About a quarter of the population is ethnic Chinese, a group which historically played an important role in trade and business. Malaysians of Indian descent comprise about 7% of the population and include Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Christians. Non-Malay indigenous groups combine to make up approximately 11% of the population.

Malaysia's predominant political party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), has held power in coalition with other parties continuously since independence in 1957. The UMNO coalition's share of the vote declined in national elections held in May 1969, after which riots broke out in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere, mainly between Malays and ethnic Chinese. Several hundred people were killed or injured. The government declared a state of emergency and suspended all parliamentary activities.

An ethnic apartheid has been part of government policy since the race riots in the 1960s. In both the ruling and opposition coalitions there are race-based parties representing the ethnic Malays, Chinese and South Asians. The classic, politically correct, stereotype of Malaysian society is Melayu, Cina dan India - Malay, Chinese and Indian.

In the years that followed, Malaysia undertook several initiatives that became integral parts of its socioeconomic model. The New Economic Policy (NEP), launched in 1971, contained a series of affirmative action policies designed to benefit Malays and certain indigenous groups (together known as bumiputera or "sons of the soil"). The Constitution was amended to limit dissent against the specially-protected and sensitive portions of the Constitution pertaining to the social contract. The government identified intercommunal harmony as one of its official goals. The previous alliance of communally based parties was replaced with a broader coalition--the Barisan Nasional (BN) or National Front. The BN won large majorities in the 1974 federal and state elections.

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was Prime Minister between 1981 and 2003, leading UMNO and BN to successive election victories. Mahathir emphasized economic development during his tenure, in particular the export sector, as well as large scale infrastructure projects. Mahathir attributed the success of the Asian tiger economies to the "Asian values" of its people, which he believed were superior to those of the West. Mahathir sharply criticized the International Monetary Fund (IMF), international financiers such as George Soros, and Western governments during the sharp economic and financial crisis that affected Asia in 1997-8, and denied that the downturn was due to the failures of corruption and "crony capitalism."

Mahathir's policies were based on an affirmative action program that offered school slots, cheap loans, and insider business deals and contracts to the Muslim Malays, who traditionally had been the poorest Malaysians despite being the majority. The affirmative action economic policies quickly turned into cronyism: only a handful of well-connected Malays got really rich. Nowhere was the business-politics connection clearer than when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was Prime Minister. Dr Mahathir initiated an aggressive privatisation policy and involved the private sector in key strategic sectors. This saw many individuals said to have close ties with Dr Mahathir growing their business empires.

The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption; however, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. The media reported numerous cases of alleged official corruption. There was a broadly held perception of widespread corruption and cronyism within the governing coalition and in government institutions.

The end of Mahathir's tenure was marred by a falling out with his deputy and presumed successor, Anwar Ibrahim. In September 1998, Mahathir dismissed Anwar and accused him of sodomy and corrupt conduct. Although Anwar was convicted on both charges in 1999 and 2000, the trials were viewed as seriously flawed. Malaysia's Federal Court eventually freed Anwar after overturning his immoral conduct conviction in September 2004.

Mahathir stepped down as prime minister in October 2003 after 22 years in power, and his successor, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was sworn into office. Abdullah called elections and won an overwhelming victory in March 2004. Since taking office, Abdullah, an Islamic scholar, promoted the concept of "Islam Hadhari" or "civilizational Islam," emphasizing the importance of education, social harmony, and economic progress. His relationship with Mahathir eventually soured, and the former prime minister now expresses regret at supporting Abdullah to be his successor.

Opposition parties were unable to compete on equal terms with the governing National Front coalition, led by the ethnic Malay UMNO party, which has held power at the national level since independence in 1957, because of significant restrictions on campaigning, freedom of assembly and association, and access to the media. Political parties could not operate without restriction or outside interference. The lack of equal access to the media was one of the most serious problems encountered by the opposition. Opposition leaders also claimed that the election commission (EC) was under government control and lacked the independence needed to carry out its duties impartially.

Malaysia held national elections in March 2008. UMNO and its coalition allies in the BN won a simple majority of the seats in the national parliament but for the first time in history failed to gain the two-thirds majority necessary to amend the constitution. The election results came as a shock to the country, which has only known the governance of the formidable National Front coalition. A loose coalition of opposition parties, called the Pakatan Rakyat or Peoples Alliance, led by Anwar Ibrahim, won 82 of 222 seats in parliament and took control of the state-level assemblies in five of Malaysia's thirteen states. The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition suffered two morale-sapping parliamentary by-election defeats, where the opposition seized control of five of Malaysia's 13 states and a third of parliamentary seats.

The co-operation of the opposition parties, broadly united under Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, has been recognised as a key factor in UMNO losses. Other factors included concerns about a slowing economy, rising fuel and consumer prices, and Prime Minister Badawi's inability to follow through on promises to tackle corruption.

A belt of Opposition states were formed in the upper peninsula. The "spirit of change" was not nationwide, it was peninsula-wide. The elections had raised hopes for a post-racial Malaysia, but changes deepened the fault lines. Although the Chinese are a minority - forming 23 per cent of Malaysia's 27 million people - their vote can be decisive if the Malays are split. Chinese support for the BN fell to 30 per cent from over 50 per cent in the 2004 election. In recent years political divisions have been increasingly shadowed by cultural and religious ones. The Muslim Malay majority has become more conservative in Islamic observance, while the next largest group, the Chinese, has become more liberal and cosmopolitan. The Malay-Muslims majority is being challenged to forgo their political power and economic protection, to allow the other races to benefit from what the country has to offer.

Post-election, Anwar continued to push the government hard. In July 2008 he filled a motion seeking a debate in parliament on 'loss of confidence' in the Government and he has vowed to seize power. The opposition People's Alliance, led by charismatic former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, was plagued by defecting members, internal squabbles and embarrassing scandals involving its lawmakers. In March 2009 Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial was transferred to the High Court. If imprisoned for sodomy Anwar could face 20 years in prison as all homosexual acts in Malaysia, a mainly Muslim country of 27 million people, are against the law.

In October 2008, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi announced that he would step down as UMNO party president, and by extension as Prime Minister, in March 2009, after a stunningly inept performance since he assumed the Barisan Nasional leadership in 2003. Since the general election in March 2008, which saw the Barisan Nasional lose five states to the opposition, there had been a clamor for change. Abdullah Badawi endorsed a transition of power to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak, the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia, was born in Kuala Lipis, Pahang on July 23, 1953. Najib is the eldest son of the second Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, who is known as the father of the country's development, and a nephew of the the third Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn. He was among the youngest to be elected into the Malaysian Parliament when he won the Pekan constituency uncontested at the age of 23, following the death of his father. He also holds the title of Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar, Pahang. Prior to being the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Najib held several posts including the Pahang Menteri Besar, Youth and Sports Minister and Education Minister. He also held the Deputy Minister's post for the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Najib faces a huge challenge to avert a recession in Malaysia, whose exports have been badly hit by the global slowdown. This made it all the more compelling for Najib to adopt a fair-policy position. Transparency and good governance trump all else. Najib enjoys the support from both the establishment and the business class. He had support from Malay-Muslims trusting him with their faith, the last frontier of Malay political dominance in Malaysia.