Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:16:29.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2018

Boo Teik Khoo
Boo Teik Khoo*
Affiliation:
The National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan; [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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.

Keywords

MalaysiaOligarchyUMNOAnwar IbrahimMahathir MohamadAbdullah BadawiNajib Razak
Type
Article
Information
TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , July 2018 , pp. 227 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © Institute for East Asian Studies, Sogang University 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brophy, Charles. 2018. “Ownership and control in 21st century Malaysia,” New Mandala, 17 January. Available at: http://www.newmandala.org/ownership-control-21st-century-malaysia/ (accessed 24 April 2018).Google Scholar
Case, William. 2013. “Corruption unplugged under Abdullah.” In Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years in Malaysia, edited by Welsh, Bridget and Chin, James U.H., 338–353. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: SIRD.Google Scholar
Crouch, Harold. 1996. Government and Society of Malaysia. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Funston, John. 2016. “UMNO – From Hidup Melayu to Ketuanan Melayu.” In The End of UMNO: Essays on Malaysia's Dominant Party, edited by Welsh, Bridget, 11–146. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: SIRD.Google Scholar
Govindasamy, Anantha Raman. 2015. “Social movements in contemporary Malaysia: The cases of BERSIH, HINDRAF and Perkasa.” In Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Malaysia, edited by Weiss, Meredith L., 116–126. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gomez, Edward Terence. 1990. UMNO's Corporate Investments. Kuala Lumpur: Forum.Google Scholar
Gomez, Edmund Terence. 2009. “The rise and fall of capital: Corporate Malaysia in historical perspective.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 39(3): 345−381.Google Scholar
Gomez, Edward Terence, and Jomo K., S. 1997. Malaysia's Political Economy: Politics, Patronage and Profits. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gomez, Edmund Terence, Padmanaban, Thirshalar, Kamaruddin, Norfaryanti, Bhalla, Sunil, and Fisal, Fikri. 2017. Minister of Finance Incorporated: Ownership and Control of Corporate Malaysia. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre.Google Scholar
Hughes, Helen. 1999/2000. “Crisis or signals? Asia's economic problems.” Policy (Summer): 52–55.Google Scholar
Hwang, In-Won. 2003. Personalized Politics: The Malaysian State under Mahathir. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Jesudason, James V. 1989. Ethnicity and the Economy: The State, Chinese Business, and Multinationals in Malaysia. Singapore: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sundaram, Jomo Kwame. 1988. A Question of Class: Capital, the State and Uneven Development in Malaya. Manila: JCA Press, and New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Teik, Khoo Boo. 1995. Paradoxes of Mahathirism: An Intellectual Biography of Mahathir Mohamad. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Teik, Khoo Boo. 2002. “Democracy and transition in Malaysia: An analysis of the problems of political succession.” Macalester International 12 (Autumn): 59–79.Google Scholar
Teik, Khoo Boo. 2003. Beyond Mahathir: Malaysian Politics and its Discontents. London and New York: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Teik, Khoo Boo. 2006. “Khairy Jamaluddin: A sketch of a young man as a politician.” Aliran Monthly 26(8): 2–7.Google Scholar
Teik, Khoo Boo. 2018. “The last stand of Dr Mahathir Mohamad.” Malaysiakini, April 17. Available at https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/420173 (accessed on 17 April 2018).Google Scholar
Jin, Khoo Khay. 1992. “The grand vision: Mahathir and modernization.” In Fragmented Vision: Culture and Politics in Contemporary Malaysia, edited by Kahn, Joel S. and Kok Wah, Francis Loh, 44–76. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Jin, Khoo Khay. 2012. “Poverty and inequality.” In Policy Regimes and the Political Economy of Poverty Reduction in Malaysia, edited by Teik, Khoo Boo, 63–106. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Khoo, Philip. 1999. “Thinking the unthinkable: A Malaysia not governed by the BN?” Aliran 19(5): 2–8.Google Scholar
Hing, Lee Kam. 2013. “Challenges amidst diversity.” In Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years in Malaysia, edited by Welsh, Bridget and Chin, James U.H., 480–512. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre.Google Scholar
Loh, Francis Kok Wah. 2003. “The marginalization of the Indians in Malaysia: Contesting explanations and the search for alternatives.” In Southeast Asia over Three Generations: Essays Presented to Benedict R.O.G. Anderson, edited by Siegel, James T. and Kahin, Audrey R., 221–243. Ithaca: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program.Google Scholar
Mohamad, Mahathir. 1991. “Malaysia: The way forward.” New Straits Times, 2 March.Google Scholar
Mohamad, Mahathir. 2011. A Doctor in the House: The Memoirs of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Kuala Lumpur: MPH.Google Scholar
Mohamad, Maznah. 2003. “The contest for Malay votes in 1999: UMNO's most historic challenge.” In New Politics in Malaysia, edited by Loh, Francis and Saravanamuttu, Johan, 66–86. Singapore: ISEAS.Google Scholar
Mohamad, Maznah. 2008. “Malaysia – democracy and the end of ethnic politics?” Australian Journal of International Affairs 62(4): 441–459.Google Scholar
Menon, Jayant, and Ng, Thiam Hee. 2017. “Do state-owned enterprises crowd out private investment? Firm level evidence from Malaysia.” Journal of Southeast Asian Economies 34(3): 507–522.Google Scholar
Puthucheary, J.J. 1960. Ownership and Control of the Malayan Economy. Singapore: Donald Moore for Eastern Universities Press.Google Scholar
Robison, Richard, and Vedi R., Hadiz. 2004. Reorganising Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in an Age of Markets. London and New York: Routledge Curzon.Google Scholar
Rodan, Garry. 2018. Participation without Democracy: Containing Conflict in Southeast Asia. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Sarawak Report. 2015. “Heist of the century – How Jho Low used PetroSaudi as “a front” to siphon billions out of 1MDB!” 28 February. Available at: http://www.sarawakreport.org/2015/02/heist-of-the-century-how-jho-low-used-petrosaudi-as-a-front-to-siphon-billions-out-of-1mdb-world-exclusive/ (accessed 18 September 2017).Google Scholar
Searle, Peter. 1999. The Riddle of Malaysian Capitalism: Rent-seekers or Real Capitalists? St. Leonards, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Sidel, John T. 2008. “Social origins of dictatorship and democracy revisited: Colonial state and Chinese immigrant in the making of modern Southeast Asia.” Comparative Politics 40(2): 127–147.Google Scholar
Singh, Hari. 2000. “Democratization or oligarchic restructuring? The politics of reform in Malaysia.” Government and Opposition 35(4): 520–546.Google Scholar
Tan, Jeff. 2008. Privatization in Malaysia: Regulation, Rent-seeking and Policy Failure. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tan, Jeff. 2015. “Rent-seeking and money politics in Malaysia: Ethnicity, cronyism and class.” In Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Malaysia, edited by Weiss, Meredith L., 202–213. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Woon, Toh Kin. 2008. “Potential departure from race-based politics.” Aliran Monthly 28(2), 24 April. Available at: http://aliran.com/718.html (accessed 20 August 2012).Google Scholar
Vithiatharan, Vighneswaran, and Gomez, Edmund Terence. 2014. “Politics, economic crises and corporate governance reforms: Regulatory capture in Malaysia.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 44(4): 599–615.Google Scholar
Wain, Barry. 2009. Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
White, Nicholas J. 2004. “The beginnings of crony capitalism: Business, politics and economic development in Malaysia, c. 1955–70.” Modern Asian Studies 38(2): 389–417.Google Scholar
Willford, Andrew C. 2007. Cage of Freedom: Tamil Identity and the Ethnic Fetish in Malaysia. Singapore: NUS Press.Google Scholar
Winters, Jeffrey A. 2011. Oligarchy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, Chris. 2015. “Why Mahathir Mohamad can't keep out of politics.” South China Morning Post, 20 June. Available at http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1823145/why-mahathir-mohamad-cant-keep-out-malaysian-politics (accessed 29 June 2018).Google Scholar
Ching, Wong Sook. 2005. “Corporate debt restructuring in Malaysia.” In Malaysian ‘Bailouts’? Capital Controls, Restructuring and Recovery, edited by Ching, Wong Sook, Jomo, Kwame Sundaram, and Fay, Chin Kok, 139−178. Singapore: NUS Press.Google Scholar