Race and Religion In Command: Malaysia Returns to Identity Politics
The stunning events of late February in Malaysia led to the downfall of the coalition that took power in May 2018 in what had been hailed as a victory for reform. With Mahathir Mohamad out as prime minister and Anwar Ibrahim as far from power as ever, an old-school Malay politician, Muhyiddin Yassin, was sworn in as prime minister on March 1.
The political whirlwind cleared the way for the United Malays National Organisation and its allies, all Malay and Muslim parties, to regain power.
The failure of the reform government to last even two years can be traced to old rivalries, inexperience and the rise of political Islam, writes James Chin.
ON MARCH 1, Muhyiddin Yassin was sworn in as Malaysia’s eighth prime minister. he took over from Mahathir Mohamad after a week of high political drama. the whole incident was a complete surprise to many people outside Malaysia, which had gone through its first-ever regime change in May 2018. those who fervently believed that Malaysia was finally on its way to joining the club of newly democratizing countries now seem sadly mistaken.
so how did this happen? While things are still unfolding in Malaysia, i would like to argue that regime change 22 months ago did not fundamentally lead to any reforms of the country’s historical racial and religious tensions. this divide could largely explain why the country reversed itself so quickly and in such dramatic fashion. i will conclude by providing some important lessons to be learned from the Malaysian experience.
Mahathir had resigned on Feb. 24, and was appointed interim prime minister from that point forward. then began a mad rush to put together a new coalition government. the contenders were initially Mahathir and Anwar ibrahim, the opposition leader who had been promised the job by Mahathir when the two joined forces in 2018 to try to unseat the ruling coalition that had led the country since independence. On Feb. 29, the Malaysian king, who formally names prime ministers, announced that he had picked Muhyiddin over the other two, and Muhyiddin was sworn in the next day.
Muhyiddin’s new ruling coalition, called Perikatan Nasional (PN, or National Alliance) consists of three core parties: the united Malays
Organisation (UMNO), Parti islam Malaysia (PAS) and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM, or united indigenous Party).
this combination is significant for a simple reason: all three parties represent the Malay and Muslim population. UMNO and PPBM are essentially the same with a similar ideology of Malay nationalism and Malay supremacy. in fact, PPBM is an offshoot of UMNO. the party was established by Mahathir for the specific purpose of beating UMNO, and most of its leadership are former UMNO personnel. PAS, while supporting Malay nationalism, also wants to create an islamic state. thus, for all intents and purpose, the new Malaysian government is a Malay-centric nationalist government.
the contrast with the government it replaced, Pakatan harapan (or Alliance of hope) could not be greater. it was led by Mahathir and consisted of four parties; PPBM, Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR, or People’s Justice Party), the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah, or National trust). in Pakatan harapan, PPBM represented Malay nationalism and Amanah represented moderate islamists. While PKR and DAP are officially multiracial parties, in practice PKR is also seen as a Malay-majority party while DAP is supported mainly by the Chinese community with a small number of indians. thus, despite what its detractors said about Pakatan harapan being led by a 94-year-old and the world’s oldest elected prime minster, it was multiracial and reflected Malaysian society. About one-third of its elected MPS were non-malays.
Malay supremacy
Malaysia’s population can roughly be divided into 55 percent Malay, 25 percent Chinese, 7 percent indian and the others mostly indigenous peoples of Borneo. since independence, there have been political tensions between Malays (who are constitutionally considered Muslims and cannot change religion) and non-malays.
When Malaysia saw its first regime change on May 9, 2018, the news was greeted with celebration by many people around the world as a triumph of democracy. Most scholars had regarded the umno-led coalition Barisan Nasional (National Front), in power since 1957, as one of the world’s most stable one-party-dominant regimes. through a mixture of authoritarian rule, ethnic and religious politics and electoral manipulation, Barisan Nasional had won every election prior to 2018.
UMNO ruled Malaysia based on the concept of ketuanan Melayu (“Malay supremacy”). this Malay-first ideology, colloquially called “Malay special rights,” in practice meant the Malay community became the beneficiary of an extensive affirmative action policy, even though Malays were the majority. these benefits include quotas in business licenses, discounts for new houses, preference in securing government jobs, and so on; there is even a special university that only takes in Malays and other indigenous students. the system resulted in UMNO itself becoming synonymous with crony capitalism and money politics. the ultimate example of this was the massive 1MDB scandal involving a government investment fund and Najib Razak, the former UMNO prime minister, who had $620 million deposited into his personal account.
Public outrage over the 1MDB debacle gave Mahathir, who had broken earlier with UMNO, the opening he needed to change the government. Yet, despite great hopes and the promise of reforms, the Pakatan harapan government fell within two years. What happened and what lessons can we learn? i would argue there were three undercurrents. First, the rise of ketuanan Islam Melayu (“Malay islamic supremacy”) ideolnational