Malaysia chooses continuity or change

AS this article presents itself to our dear readers, the citizens of my home country, perhaps the Philippines’ closest neighbor, are heading to the polls. For today is voting day for Malaysia’s fourteenth general election.

Unlike the Philippines which elects its president and Congress representatives separately, Malaysia practices a system of parliamentary democracy whereby at the national level the voters cast their ballots only to elect members of parliament (MPs, akin to representatives) from single constituencies, and the prime minister, who is the chief executive, is the MP

majority in Parliament.

In over half a century of nationhood, Malaysians have seen only one ruling coalition, namely the Barisan Nasional (BN, or National Front). By now, it is the longest-serving incumbent party in the democratic world. In the past two general elections, Malaysian voters have been switching over to the opposition coalition, formerly called Pakatan Rakyat (PR, People’s Alliance) and now Pakatan Harapan (PH, Alliance of Hope). In the last general election, for example, PR garnered more than half of the votes cast. Nevertheless, BN still retained its parliamentary majority and thus the right to form a government, mainly because of the delineation of parliamentary constituencies whereby the voter populations are not evenly distributed. But PR made enough inroads that BN was denied its much vaunted two-thirds parliamentary majority in the last two general elections.

After the last Malaysian general elec-

events took place. First, one of three PR component parties, the Islamist party PAS, decided to split from the opposition coalition due primarily, but by no means exclusively, to ideological differences with the two other PR component parties. PAS abandoned its hitherto moderate stance and became suddenly adamant about reviving its somewhat extremist political aim of ushering in a more theocratic social outlook for Malaysia. This was of course in stark contrast to the political struggles of the decidedly secular Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR, People’s Justice Party). PAS ostensibly struck out on its own to become a somewhat “independent,” somewhat “opposition” party, but in reality working closely with UMNO, the backbone component party of BN.

- opment since the last Malaysian general election was the former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s leaving UMNO, citing political and other differences with Prime Minister Najib Razak. At over 90 years old, Mahathir decided to form his own party, and together with a splinter party from PAS, joined DAP and PKR to form a new PH opposition alliance. Mahathir has since become the chairman of PH.

At least two economically significant developments also emerged after the last general election. One is the series of unsettling events related to the quasi- sovereign fund company 1Malaysia Development Berhad ( 1MDB), which is being investigated by several international jurisdictions ( including the United States and Switzerland) for alleged abuses and widely reported by the international media. The Malaysian authorities, on the other hand, cleared 1MDB of any wrongdoing.

Another was the introduction of goods and services tax (GST) in Malaysia. The government’s rationale

new sources of revenue income as the world’s petroleum prices hit a low. But the tax has since been blamed by the opposition for the rising costs of living in the population at large, among other misgivings.

All these developments are coming to a head in this general election. Although Malaysia does not practice the more personalistic style of presidential politics, this year’s electoral contest is largely seen as a political showdown between Mahathir and his erstwhile political protege Najib. During the campaign period, the beaming smile of Najib dominated BN advertising in both printed media as well as large roadside electronic display boards. Mahathir, on the other hand, took mainly to the internet to spread his and his coalition’s political message, in addition to staging huge political rallies attended by many thousands of people.

Political messaging is indeed of crucial importance to this election. PH adopts a more macro approach of trying to bring up various general political and socio-economic issues that are likely to rile the electorate, from the IMDB controversy to the perceived rising cost of living. The ruling BN prefers a more micro approach to campaigning, whereby various socioeconomic development programs are introduced, targeting various segments of voters who might have felt alienated from the mainstream. It remains to be seen which approach would ultimately bring forth more votes for the party concerned.

But ultimately, this election is primarily about whether the Malaysian electorate would like to opt for continuity under BN rule or for change in a new government led by PH. The political discourse over the campaign period has been largely devoid of overly racial and religious sentiments,

multi-racial and multi-faith society such as Malaysia. It can only be hoped that such tolerance would carry forward during and beyond the voting.