Bottom Line
Political tsunami in Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia, a country of nearly 24 million people, of which ethnic minorities (Chinese and Indians) constitute 35%, went to the polls on March 8. It is a parliamentary monarchy whose largely ceremonial monarch is elected every five years by the nine hereditary Malays kings of peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia) from among their own members.
Its current Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (68), who was elected in 2004 with 91% seats, sought another five-year term. He heads a coalition, known as Barisan National, which has won all previous 11 general elections.
The question was not whether his coalition party would win; rather the question was how many seats his coalition party would get. Prime Minister Badawi told voters the night before the election that they could cause instability and chaos if they abandoned BN, implying that racial tensions could flare up.
In 1969, after Barisan suffered a major electoral setback, race riots broke out in which hundreds of people were killed and a two-year state of emergency followed. Badawi said: "You have to vote for our future. You have to vote for our children ... What will happen if there is chaos and there is instability?"
Worst election result for the ruling coalition party
It appears that 10.9 million eligible voters sent a different message to the ruling party. With a few seats yet to be decided at the time of writing, the ruling coalition won 137 and the opposition 82 of the 222 seats in Parliament. In Kuala Lumpur, the opposition has captured 10 of 11 seats in the parliament. No one expected the opposition to do so well across the board Opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister who is banned from holding office after being jailed for corruption in a trial he calls politically motivated, hailed the result as a message that it was time for change in Malaysia. Mr. Ibrahim's Justice Party has 31 seats out of the opposition's 82 so far, according to the commission's website. The opposition now has control of an unprecedented number of seats in parliament, 82. Before the election, it held 19. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's coalition lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority, and control of five state assemblies, including Penang, out of eleven in peninsular Malaysia and two states in East Malaysia. Before the elections only one state was under opposition control, Kelantan. The election commission confirmed opposition wins in Kelantan as well as Selangor, Perak, Kedah and Penang. The loss of Penang, which has a majority of Chinese voters, is considered a personal blow to the prime minister, as it is a major industrial centre. Three ruling component party leaders failed to secure a seat at the lower house of the parliament, including Malaysian Indian Congress president Samy Vellu, and People's Movement Party acting president Koh Tsu Koon. The Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) reportedly has won a simple majority in the state of Kelantan to continue to control the state's government. Media reports indicate that the ruling coalition in Malaysia has suffered its worst election result in decades by winning only a simple majority, say election officials. The biggest loser is Prime Minister Badawi, who dissolved parliament in February, one year before the five-year deadline. He wanted to judge the popularity of his government through the election. Among those calling for Abdullah Badawi to quit is his predecessor, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who accused him of destroying the United Malays Organisation (UMNO), the largest party in the ruling alliance. Dr. Mahathir, who chose Badawi as his successor more than five years ago, said he had made the wrong choice. "I think he should accept responsibility for this. He should accept 100% responsibility," he said. Badawi dismissed suggestions that he would now face pressure from party members to step down. His son-in law, Khairy Jamaluddin, told reporters: "We suffered a lot of losses tonight. But we are going to fight on. We are not going to quit. It is not the end of the world and we are going to get through this." Ibrahim, said the people of Malaysia had spoken: "Today, at the ballot box, you listened to your heart with a lot of conviction that the time for change has arrived … This is a defining moment, unprecedented in our nation's history. Today a new chapter has opened." Why the loss?
It is clear that people wanted change, and Chinese and Indian ethnic minority voters deserted the National Front, which was in power for 50 years. Growing tensions between minority communities and the Malay majority have dominated the election campaign, and the government has appealed for calm. Ethnic minorities make up more than a third of the population. Many complain that government policy has denied them fair access to jobs, education, and housing. The government's affirmative-action policy has given Malays educational, housing and job preferences since it was created in 1971. Analysts say that ethnic tensions and widespread concerns about price rises have diminished the popularity of the ruling party. Indians in Malaysia say the Malay-Muslim majority discriminates them against. Some Indians allege that racial harmony is not possible in a country that has one set of rules for the majority and a different set for the minority. They ask why they should vote for a government that treats them not as "citizens of equal right" but as guests who simply enjoys the goodwill of their hosts. Tensions have increased in recent months as a result of a series of illegal street demonstrations. Last November, 10,000 Indians took to the streets during one protest. Many were arrested and the action reflected the authoritarian character of the government. Anwar's People's Justice Party co-operated with two opposition parties -- the DAP and PAS -- against the government, and pledged to scrap the race-based policy. Tricia Yeoh from the Centre for Public Policy Studies said that this election was drastically different to the last. "There has been, in the past four years, an increasing disquiet in almost all sectors of society," she said. "This is due to a number of reasons...the failure of the administration to curb corruption and the growing income disparity between different societies in Malaysia." Yeoh said the electoral system is in need of reform because of conditions that are unfavourable towards the opposition. "You've got non-Malays very disgruntled with the government,'' said Maznah Mohamed, a senior fellow at the National University of Singapore. "The opposition parties have really gotten their act together in terms of strategising, and they have their icon of a leader in Anwar.'' Furthermore, Prime Minister Badawi's leadership appeared to be weak and listless. His difficulty has been that he succeeded strong man Dr. Mahathir Mohammad. Badawi has always been a compromiser, and is not confrontational. He is a deeply religious person and soft-spoken. Malaysia's voters seem to have preferred a strong man to a compromiser. It is a healthy sign that the opposition will have a role in the parliament to make the government accountable for their actions or omissions in running the country. The opposition have now to show that they can work together. That means they must show that the Chinese, multi-racial, and Islamic parties can forget their religious and ethnic differences. Democracy does have roots in the Islamic world. It is argued that historic Muslim societies were more representative than their modern counterparts because the central government was not as powerful. Muslim society was a society where communities had some control of their own affairs. There was more decentralisation of power. The central government was mainly focusing on issues of law and order or security. Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey have demonstrated that Islam and democracy go together by going through periodic elections. Barrister Harun ur Rashid is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.
It appears that 10.9 million eligible voters sent a different message to the ruling party. With a few seats yet to be decided at the time of writing, the ruling coalition won 137 and the opposition 82 of the 222 seats in Parliament. In Kuala Lumpur, the opposition has captured 10 of 11 seats in the parliament. No one expected the opposition to do so well across the board Opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister who is banned from holding office after being jailed for corruption in a trial he calls politically motivated, hailed the result as a message that it was time for change in Malaysia. Mr. Ibrahim's Justice Party has 31 seats out of the opposition's 82 so far, according to the commission's website. The opposition now has control of an unprecedented number of seats in parliament, 82. Before the election, it held 19. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's coalition lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority, and control of five state assemblies, including Penang, out of eleven in peninsular Malaysia and two states in East Malaysia. Before the elections only one state was under opposition control, Kelantan. The election commission confirmed opposition wins in Kelantan as well as Selangor, Perak, Kedah and Penang. The loss of Penang, which has a majority of Chinese voters, is considered a personal blow to the prime minister, as it is a major industrial centre. Three ruling component party leaders failed to secure a seat at the lower house of the parliament, including Malaysian Indian Congress president Samy Vellu, and People's Movement Party acting president Koh Tsu Koon. The Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) reportedly has won a simple majority in the state of Kelantan to continue to control the state's government. Media reports indicate that the ruling coalition in Malaysia has suffered its worst election result in decades by winning only a simple majority, say election officials. The biggest loser is Prime Minister Badawi, who dissolved parliament in February, one year before the five-year deadline. He wanted to judge the popularity of his government through the election. Among those calling for Abdullah Badawi to quit is his predecessor, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who accused him of destroying the United Malays Organisation (UMNO), the largest party in the ruling alliance. Dr. Mahathir, who chose Badawi as his successor more than five years ago, said he had made the wrong choice. "I think he should accept responsibility for this. He should accept 100% responsibility," he said. Badawi dismissed suggestions that he would now face pressure from party members to step down. His son-in law, Khairy Jamaluddin, told reporters: "We suffered a lot of losses tonight. But we are going to fight on. We are not going to quit. It is not the end of the world and we are going to get through this." Ibrahim, said the people of Malaysia had spoken: "Today, at the ballot box, you listened to your heart with a lot of conviction that the time for change has arrived … This is a defining moment, unprecedented in our nation's history. Today a new chapter has opened." Why the loss?
It is clear that people wanted change, and Chinese and Indian ethnic minority voters deserted the National Front, which was in power for 50 years. Growing tensions between minority communities and the Malay majority have dominated the election campaign, and the government has appealed for calm. Ethnic minorities make up more than a third of the population. Many complain that government policy has denied them fair access to jobs, education, and housing. The government's affirmative-action policy has given Malays educational, housing and job preferences since it was created in 1971. Analysts say that ethnic tensions and widespread concerns about price rises have diminished the popularity of the ruling party. Indians in Malaysia say the Malay-Muslim majority discriminates them against. Some Indians allege that racial harmony is not possible in a country that has one set of rules for the majority and a different set for the minority. They ask why they should vote for a government that treats them not as "citizens of equal right" but as guests who simply enjoys the goodwill of their hosts. Tensions have increased in recent months as a result of a series of illegal street demonstrations. Last November, 10,000 Indians took to the streets during one protest. Many were arrested and the action reflected the authoritarian character of the government. Anwar's People's Justice Party co-operated with two opposition parties -- the DAP and PAS -- against the government, and pledged to scrap the race-based policy. Tricia Yeoh from the Centre for Public Policy Studies said that this election was drastically different to the last. "There has been, in the past four years, an increasing disquiet in almost all sectors of society," she said. "This is due to a number of reasons...the failure of the administration to curb corruption and the growing income disparity between different societies in Malaysia." Yeoh said the electoral system is in need of reform because of conditions that are unfavourable towards the opposition. "You've got non-Malays very disgruntled with the government,'' said Maznah Mohamed, a senior fellow at the National University of Singapore. "The opposition parties have really gotten their act together in terms of strategising, and they have their icon of a leader in Anwar.'' Furthermore, Prime Minister Badawi's leadership appeared to be weak and listless. His difficulty has been that he succeeded strong man Dr. Mahathir Mohammad. Badawi has always been a compromiser, and is not confrontational. He is a deeply religious person and soft-spoken. Malaysia's voters seem to have preferred a strong man to a compromiser. It is a healthy sign that the opposition will have a role in the parliament to make the government accountable for their actions or omissions in running the country. The opposition have now to show that they can work together. That means they must show that the Chinese, multi-racial, and Islamic parties can forget their religious and ethnic differences. Democracy does have roots in the Islamic world. It is argued that historic Muslim societies were more representative than their modern counterparts because the central government was not as powerful. Muslim society was a society where communities had some control of their own affairs. There was more decentralisation of power. The central government was mainly focusing on issues of law and order or security. Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey have demonstrated that Islam and democracy go together by going through periodic elections. Barrister Harun ur Rashid is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.
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