Malaysia 2013 Elections
Malaysia held a lower house election on 05 May 2013. Malaysia's election board announced the date after the lower house was dissolved. Official campaigning was to start on April 20th, but the governing coalition and the opposition alliance were already competing for voter support. Prime Minister Najib Razak spoke before tens of thousands of supporters, stressing his National Front coalition's success in achieving stable growth. Najib also promised tax cuts and other benefits as his coalition's election pledges. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim repeatedly criticized corruption and special-interest politics under the coalition's long rule.
The focus was whether the country will see its first change of power since gaining independence. The National Front, a coalition led by a party of the ethnic Malay majority, has remained in power since Malaysia won independence from Britain in 1957. But the coalition lost its two-thirds majority for the first time in the 2008 general election. Opinion polls showed sluggish growth in its approval rating, raising voter expectations for a change of power.
On 05 May 2013 Prime Minister Najib Razak's National Front ruling coalition secured a parliamentary majority in the general election. The country's Election Commission said the National Front, led by Prime Minister Najib Razak, garnered at least 112 out of the 222 lower house seats. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's three-party alliance took 57 seats with more than two-thirds of the results confirmed. More than 10-million people cast ballots for a record turnout of about 80 percent. It was the National Front's 13th consecutive victory in general elections since Malaysia's independence from Britain in 1957.
In the final count, the Barisan Nasional coalition won only 133 seats in the 222-member parliament, seven short of its tally in 2008 and well below the two-thirds majority it was aiming for. It also lost the popular vote, underlining opposition complaints that the electoral system is stacked against it. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's People's Alliance won 89 seats, up 7 from 2008 but still incapable of unseating one of the world's longest-serving governments.
The National Front survived the most serious challenge by an opposition alliance in the country's history. It was set to maintain the power it has held since Malaysia's independence from Britain in 1957. The opposition alliance, the People's Pact, led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, was riding high on voter frustration. Voters were increasingly critical of the ruling coalition's preferential treatment of ethnic Malays and alleged corruption. But voters apparently opted for stability instead of an untested opposition.
A Malaysian appeals court overturned opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's 2012 acquittal on charges of sodomy. The Court of Appeals ruled March 07, 2014 that Anwar was guilty of having sex in 2008 with a man who was then his aide. A lower court acquitted Anwar in 2012, ruling that DNA evidence in the trial was contaminated. Sodomy is punishable by up to 20 years in prison under a colonial-era law in Malaysia. Human Rights Watch said it was clear the government was "determined to remove Anwar from the political scene by hook or by crook."
Prime Minister Najib, who also heads the powerful United Malays National Organization (UMNO), faced calls to resign over alleged financial mismanagement at indebted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). He was under growing pressure over claims that $700 million (633 million euros) were wired from the state-owned development company to his personal bank accounts. The transfers were reportedly made shortly before the hotly contested election in 2013.
The PM, whose approval ratings had fallen sharply over 2015, weathered his biggest political crisis since taking office in 2009 by denying any wrongdoing. His position within the party is secure. And the party is secure in its Malay support.
The Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance collapsed in June 2015 as the Islamist Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) - one of the coalition parties - severed ties with the the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP) over differences which arose over the PAS' plans to implement Islamic penalties - known as hudud - in Kelantan State.
State-level Islamic religious enforcement officers already had the authority to accompany police on raids or conduct raids of private premises and public establishments to enforce sharia, including bans on indecent dress, alcohol consumption, the sale of restricted books, or close proximity to members of the opposite sex. Religious authorities at the state level administer sharia for civil and family law through Islamic courts and have jurisdiction for all Muslims.
Islamists within PAS saw the introduction of hudud laws as their major goal. Democracy and human rights seem to be rather unimportant to them. They do see the secularism of the Chinese minorities as represented by the DAP as a problem.
China’s ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, Huang Huikang, said “China rejects any form of extremism and racism, and will not stand by if Chinese interests are at stake”.
Two of Malaysia's opposition parties which used to be part of a now-defunct alliance - jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and DAP - announced in September 2015 the formation of a new coalition called Pakatan Harapan (or Alliance of Hope in Malay) with the newly formed Parti Amanah Negara (PAN) - a splinter party of the Islamist PAS.
Three parties that formed Malaysia's new opposition coalition agreed 09 January 2016 on a code of conduct designed to settle disputes among coalition members. The new pact aimed to avoid disagreements such as those that led to the split up of the former alliance in June 2015. The new opposition alliance of the DAP, PKR, and PAN parties, agreed that Anwar Ibrahim will remain the leader of the coalition and their prime ministerial candidate, though he remained in prison.
PAN has a huge following and it could be that PAS would seriously suffer from the split. Three-cornered fights were probable in the next general elections, meaning that PAS and PAN candidates may be on opposite sides. This new constellation of forces will enhance the chances of the ruling coalition to survive. The more divided Malaysia is, the more likely that Najib will remain in power because UMNO has always benefitted from a divide-and-rule strategy.
On 29 February 2016 former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and former party division leader Khairuddin Abu Hassan quit the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party. "I won't call it UMNO anymore, this is (current Prime Minister) Najib's party. I feel embarrassed that I am associated with a party that is seen as supporting corruption - it has caused me to feel ashamed," he told reporters as he announced his exit at a news conference.
Mahathir, Malaysia's longest-serving leader, remains a highly respected and influential figure and has become one of the fiercest critics of PM Najib. Mahathir previously left UMNO in 2008, when Abdullah Badawi was prime minister. Mahathir rejoined the party in 2009 when Najib became prime minister. Mahathir has led a campaign against Prime Minister Najib over accusations the national leader had diverted over $3.5 billion from the state-run 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fund. Najib said he is not guilty of the charges, saying the funds had been dealt with properly and were a “genuine donation” from Saudi Arabia.
The ‘Bersih’ or clean government movement was founded in 2006. It includes a coalition of 62 non-government organizations (NGOs) and has staged five rallies calling for reform of Malaysia’s electoral system and for Prime Minister Najib Razak to step aside amid corruption allegations. A sea of yellow shirts, hallmark of the ‘Bersih’ movement, took over the city’s center 29 November 2016. The protest went ahead despite arrests of several leaders including the coalition’s chairperson, Maria Chin Abdullah. Amnesty International, in a statement, said the arrests were part of a “series of crude and heavy handed attempts to intimidate Malaysian civil society activists and human rights defenders.”
The arrests highlighted a willingness by the government to use “the instruments of coercion” especially in the lead up new elections, expected in the next two years. A vote must be held by late August, 2018. However many observers believe the election will come much sooner, perhaps as early as mid-2017, as the government considers holding a poll before political opposition groups are able to unify. Fears of violence by pro-Malay ‘red shirt’ supporters failed to be realized. A key red shirt leader, Jamal Mohamaf Yunos, who had threatened tens of thousands of red shirt protestors to challenge the Bersih rally, was himself detained by authorities.
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