Malaysia must address a host of problems

The euphoria over the change of government in Malaysia is unlikely to die down soon. In fact, the honeymoon period for Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his new government will probably last until the end of the year. Malaysians are keen to give the new administration some time to get itself organised. After all, the former ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, was in power for a whopping six decades.

Plus, Malaysia has a host of thorny problems it must address now that Najib Razak is out of office and the 92-year-old Mahathir is back in power. If the country is going to have a bright future, it will need time to tackle these issues.

These are five areas the new administration must focus on in the next year if it’s going to put Malaysia back on track.

Civil service. The Malaysian civil service lost its professionalism many years ago. In recent times, it has behaved more like a branch of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the former ruling party that dates back to Malaysia’s creation, than a neutral group of committed civil servants.

It’s also widely been seen as a “job bank” for unemployed Malay youths and Malay graduates in courses with low employment prospects like Islamic studies. These young people have little chance of being employed in the private sector, thus for political reasons, they are absorbed into the civil service.

The end result is a bloated civil service of 1.6 million people, or about 5 per cent of the total population, with low levels of productivity. An astonishing 40 per cent of the government budget now goes to public-sector emoluments. This is not sustainable, even in the short run.

Education System. There is also something seriously wrong with the Malaysian education system. The proof is the increasing number of parents putting their children in expensive private schools instead of state-funded public schools. There are now 170 international schools in Malaysia.

Middle-class parents are moving to the private school system simply because the standard of education in state schools has dropped dramatically.

The basic problem with Malaysian universities is they don’t promote on merit. The country’s racial quota for student intake — roughly 65 per cent Malays to 35 per cent non-Malays — has been extended to the recruitment of academic staff and vice-chancellors, most of whom come from the Malay ethnic group.

The Malay Agenda. This is a long-standing issue and perhaps the most taboo of all subjects. The previous Barisan Nasional (BN) regime was an unashamedly proud proponent of “The Malay Agenda”, a comprehensive system of affirmative action policies aimed at helping the majority Malay community and other indigenous peoples (collectively referred to as Bumiputeras). Quotas for Bumiputeras have been established in all aspects of Malaysian life, from scholarships and government contracts to business licences and even special discounts for new properties.

Political Islam. In the past decade, there’s been explosive growth in the number of groups using Islam for political mobilisation. Many of these groups promote the idea of Islamic supremacy and the creation of an Islamic Malaysian state. They also have an exclusive view of Islam and demand that non-Muslims, currently about 40 per cent of the population, be denied their full political rights and be treated as protected minority with very limited political rights.

The previous BN regime actively courted these Islamic groups with hopes of capturing the Islamic vote. In the process, the state itself became more religiously conservative.

In the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo, this has created political cleavages where none had existed.

Transition date. One of the new ruling coalition’s key promises was to transfer power from Mahathir to Anwar Ibrahim, the long-time opposition leader recently released from prison. This transfer is expected to happen within two years.

There are concerns, however, that Mahathir and Anwar may not be able to come to an agreement on the handover date. If the transfer of power does not take place, there’s a likelihood the entire winning alliance will fall apart. This would be disastrous for the country’s much-needed reform agenda.The mistake made by new governments is to put off the most difficult challenges until they are more firmly established. History in this part of the world would suggest otherwise. —The Conversation James Chin IS Director, Asia Institute

Tasmania, University of Tasmania

If the transfer of power does not take place, there’s a likelihood the entire winning alliance will fall apart. This would be disastrous for the country’s much-needed reform agenda