Towards a New Malaysia?: The 2018 Election and Its Aftermath

Description

Malaysia’s stunning 2018 election brought down a ruling party that had held power since independence in 1957, marking the first regime change in the country’s history. This book tells the full story of this historic election (officially called the 14th Malaysian General Election or GE14), combining a sharp analysis of the voting data with consideration of the key issues, campaign strategies, and mobilization efforts that played out during the election period. This analysis is then used to bring fresh ideas and perspectives to the core debates about Malaysian political ideas, identities and behaviors, debates that continue to shape the country’s destiny. After the election, many Malaysians were optimistic about the possibility of a more representative, accountable, participatory, and equitable polity, but Meredith L. Weiss and Faisal S. Hazis do not see GE14 as a clear harbinger of full-on liberalization. While the political aftermath of the election continues to play out, the authors provide a clarion call for deeper, more critical, more comparative research on Malaysia’s politics. They upend commonly held beliefs about Malaysian politics and bring forward lesser-known theories, and they suggest agendas for empirically interesting, theoretically relevant further research. They also point to the broader insights Malaysia’s experience provides for the study of elections and political change in one-party dominant states around the world. Lists of Tables, Charts, Maps, and Figures Acknowledgements Acronyms and Glossary Towards a New Malaysia? Meredith L. Weiss and Faisal S. Hazis Part I: Election Results and Voting Behaviour How Malaysia Voted in 2018 Ibrahim Suffian and Lee Tai De Elite Fragmentation and Party Splits: Explaining the Breakdown of UMNO in Malaysia’s 14th General Election Faisal S. Hazis Cross-ethnic Vote-pooling in West Malaysia: The Malaysian Chinese Association and Democratic Action Party Compared Helen Ting Mu Hung Politics of Reform and the Triumph of Pakatan Harapan: Continuity in Change Johan Saravanamuttu Part II: Issues and Campaign Strategies 6. Big Data Campaigning Ross Tapsell 7. Youth in the Politics of Transition in Malaysia Haris Zuan 8. Islam and Its Racial Dynamics in Malaysia’s 14th General Election Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid and Che Hamdan Che Mohd Razali Personal Touch, Professional Style: Women in Malaysian Islamist Politics David Kloos The Battle of Bangi: The Struggle for Political Islam in Urban Malaysia Hew Wai Weng 1 Part III: Post-election Trajectories Reconsidering Malaysia’s First-Past-the-Post Electoral System: Malpractices and Mismatch Wong Chin Huat The Road Ahead: How to Transform Malaysia’s Regime Meredith L. Weiss Contributors Index