beetlemaniac
The Living Force
Election day has been fixed on 9th of May 2018. The two main parties involved are Barisan Nasional (BN - National Front) which has been the ruling party in Malaysia for the past 50 years, and the Pakatan Harapan (PH - Alliance of Hope) as the strongest opposition party. Malaysian politics has been going through very interesting twists and turns as of late. The leading figure of the opposition party, Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, was the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia and the longest running one - his term spanned 22 years. He's already 92 years old and doesn't seem to show any signs of slowing down, really. Even after stepping down as Prime Minister, he still continued to be in the limelight, and his opinions would often reach the first pages of the local newspapers, especially if they were disparaging some politician or other from his ex-party.
Some background on the ruling party. BN is made up of a group of sub-parties, each of which are focused on a specific ethnicity as indicated in their names: UMNO (United Malays National Organisation), MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association), MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress), and a handful of parties which represent the indigenous populations of East Malaysia as well as other minor parties.
So as you can see, the politics in Malaysia for the past 50 or so years, of which the ruling party has been steadily holding power, has been very racially focused, and in fact, the media still does describe voter populations by race as a convenient way to size up any particular constituency. On the 1969 elections, the ruling party had lost its two-thirds supermajority in parliament, and that had led to what has been widely said to be orchestrated racial riots on May 13th 1969 which triggered the institution of martial law and the establishment of an interim body to govern the country. The other time that the ruling party had lost its supermajority (which means that it does not have the right to pass amendments to the Constitution) was during the 12th and the subsequent 13th General Elections, when the opposition had a landslide victory of sorts.
This election, which will be Malaysia’s 14th, has been framed as more personality-oriented than previous elections. The two personalities representing the two parties mentioned above are Najib Razak (BN) and Mahathir Mohamad (PH - mentioned above), both of whom are notorious in their own right. Najib Razak is the current Prime Minister and the head of UMNO which is the lead party in BN, representing the Malay who are the majority race in Malaysia. He’s the eldest son of the second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein. Since he took office, he's been implicated in two major scandals being associated with a Mongolian woman whom was murdered and pilfering 2.6 billion ringgit from government coffers (also known as the 1MDB scandal). The money scandal is detailed in this documentary by the ABC below:
It's quite clear that Najib is quite a shameless character, and seems corrupt to the core. His wife, Rosmah Mansor has also been disparaged by many as a power-hungry woman who controls her husband behind the scenes.
The leader of the Opposition coalition however is a somewhat more “colourful” character, with a bit more nuance in his admittedly ideologically-driven thinking, at least during his years in office. Mahathir, now 92, is a person who is something of a legend and is still loved by many. Just an aside, I attended the same secondary school as he did (Sultan Abdul Hamid College), and my ex-schoolmates and I do share a certain fascination and awe for this man. He was known to be a highly disciplined and autocratic leader who ruled by decree. He brought rapid modernisation and urbanisation to the country, especially to the capital city. However, this development came at a cost. This requires some explaining: he was responsible for further entrenching a preference for the Malay by instituting policies of affirmative action for this group because of his belief that they were of lesser capability than the Chinese businessman and the Indian trader and needed encouragement and support to thrive - he’s even written a book about it, called The Malay Dilemma. This excerpt provides the gist on why I feel Mahathir is ideologically driven:
This ideology led him to "nurture" a Malay capitalist class which was mostly made up of his close associates, friends and family. These cronies received many very large contracts to develop the country's infrastructure, like the North-South Highway. Along the way, he met with resistance from the Judiciary when he wanted to institute some controversial amendments to the constitution, which culminated in the sacking of the Head Justice and some other judges, and subsequently installing judges who were sympathetic to him. By making this unconstitutional change at the highest ranks of the judiciary, he has allowed the executive branch of government to have almost total control of the government. He had also neutered the monarchy which used to have a say in bills that were passed in parliament. Now the head monarch has barely any power over the executive. In the case of Malaysia, the Federal Government is made up of three branches, the executive, the judiciary and the legislative.
It doesn't stop there. During his term as Prime Minister, Mahathir had a very ambitious and bright Malay by the name of Anwar Ibrahim as his deputy. However, in what seems to be a power struggle between these two figures, Anwar who had tried to make some reforms to Malaysia's monetary policy was sacked by Mahathir for crossing the line. Relations between Anwar and Mahathir were reportedly getting strained during the 1990s. The strain reached its peak during a period in early 1997, when Mahathir had given Anwar reign over the government as acting prime minister while he took leave for a 2 month vacation:
Anwar was further implicated in several sodomy cases where he was accused of homosexuality, which was basically a set up to defame him, by none other than Mahathir. Further along the line, after Mahathir stepped down, and Anwar had gained freedom, Anwar started the Parti Keadilan Nasional (PKN - National Justice Party) and began his second foray into politics. He was joined by both his wife and daughter who both have been fielded as candidates in previous elections. Along the way, Anwar was again indicted for sodomy during the Najib administration (the current administration).
It's interesting to see the forces in play here, and to connect what I've learned about geopolitics from SoTT to what's happening in my country, Malaysia. It would seem that Anwar was taken in his early years by the IMF line and had support from senior US officials, while Mahathir tried hard to stop this foreign influence from getting ahold of the country's economy. In any case, it gets more interesting further on as politics has a way of making strange bedfellows...
[to be continued]
Some background on the ruling party. BN is made up of a group of sub-parties, each of which are focused on a specific ethnicity as indicated in their names: UMNO (United Malays National Organisation), MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association), MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress), and a handful of parties which represent the indigenous populations of East Malaysia as well as other minor parties.
So as you can see, the politics in Malaysia for the past 50 or so years, of which the ruling party has been steadily holding power, has been very racially focused, and in fact, the media still does describe voter populations by race as a convenient way to size up any particular constituency. On the 1969 elections, the ruling party had lost its two-thirds supermajority in parliament, and that had led to what has been widely said to be orchestrated racial riots on May 13th 1969 which triggered the institution of martial law and the establishment of an interim body to govern the country. The other time that the ruling party had lost its supermajority (which means that it does not have the right to pass amendments to the Constitution) was during the 12th and the subsequent 13th General Elections, when the opposition had a landslide victory of sorts.
This election, which will be Malaysia’s 14th, has been framed as more personality-oriented than previous elections. The two personalities representing the two parties mentioned above are Najib Razak (BN) and Mahathir Mohamad (PH - mentioned above), both of whom are notorious in their own right. Najib Razak is the current Prime Minister and the head of UMNO which is the lead party in BN, representing the Malay who are the majority race in Malaysia. He’s the eldest son of the second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein. Since he took office, he's been implicated in two major scandals being associated with a Mongolian woman whom was murdered and pilfering 2.6 billion ringgit from government coffers (also known as the 1MDB scandal). The money scandal is detailed in this documentary by the ABC below:
It's quite clear that Najib is quite a shameless character, and seems corrupt to the core. His wife, Rosmah Mansor has also been disparaged by many as a power-hungry woman who controls her husband behind the scenes.
The leader of the Opposition coalition however is a somewhat more “colourful” character, with a bit more nuance in his admittedly ideologically-driven thinking, at least during his years in office. Mahathir, now 92, is a person who is something of a legend and is still loved by many. Just an aside, I attended the same secondary school as he did (Sultan Abdul Hamid College), and my ex-schoolmates and I do share a certain fascination and awe for this man. He was known to be a highly disciplined and autocratic leader who ruled by decree. He brought rapid modernisation and urbanisation to the country, especially to the capital city. However, this development came at a cost. This requires some explaining: he was responsible for further entrenching a preference for the Malay by instituting policies of affirmative action for this group because of his belief that they were of lesser capability than the Chinese businessman and the Indian trader and needed encouragement and support to thrive - he’s even written a book about it, called The Malay Dilemma. This excerpt provides the gist on why I feel Mahathir is ideologically driven:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Malay_Dilemma said:In the preface of the book's first edition, its British publisher casts doubt on the accuracy of Mahathir's assumptions and facts. Mahathir has been criticised for the lack of documentary evidence to buttress his many arguments and conclusions. Bakri Musa states that his assertions and assumptions were based on his personal observations and experiences, with no empirical data to support them.
This ideology led him to "nurture" a Malay capitalist class which was mostly made up of his close associates, friends and family. These cronies received many very large contracts to develop the country's infrastructure, like the North-South Highway. Along the way, he met with resistance from the Judiciary when he wanted to institute some controversial amendments to the constitution, which culminated in the sacking of the Head Justice and some other judges, and subsequently installing judges who were sympathetic to him. By making this unconstitutional change at the highest ranks of the judiciary, he has allowed the executive branch of government to have almost total control of the government. He had also neutered the monarchy which used to have a say in bills that were passed in parliament. Now the head monarch has barely any power over the executive. In the case of Malaysia, the Federal Government is made up of three branches, the executive, the judiciary and the legislative.
It doesn't stop there. During his term as Prime Minister, Mahathir had a very ambitious and bright Malay by the name of Anwar Ibrahim as his deputy. However, in what seems to be a power struggle between these two figures, Anwar who had tried to make some reforms to Malaysia's monetary policy was sacked by Mahathir for crossing the line. Relations between Anwar and Mahathir were reportedly getting strained during the 1990s. The strain reached its peak during a period in early 1997, when Mahathir had given Anwar reign over the government as acting prime minister while he took leave for a 2 month vacation:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Anwar_Ibrahim#Financial_crisis said:During the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis Anwar, as finance minister, supported the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plan. He also instituted an austerity package that cut government spending by 18%, cut ministerial salaries and deferred major projects. "Mega projects", despite being a cornerstone of Mahathir's development strategy, were greatly curtailed.
Although many Malaysian companies faced bankruptcy, Anwar declared: "There is no question of any bailout. The banks will be allowed to protect themselves and the government will not interfere." Anwar advocated a free-market approach to the crisis, including foreign investment and trade liberalisation. Mahathir blamed currency speculators like George Soros for the crisis, and supported currency controls and tighter regulation of foreign investment.
[...]
In what the Sydney Morning Herald termed a "blatantly political fix-up", Anwar was arrested on 20 September 1998. He was subsequently charged with corruption for allegedly interfering with police investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct made against him. While he was in police custody in 1998, Anwar was beaten by the then Inspector General of Police, Rahim Noor. Rahim was subsequently found guilty of assault and jailed for two months in 2000. He made a public apology to Anwar and paid undisclosed damages. In April 1999, following a trial, Anwar was sentenced to six years' imprisonment. Two months later, he was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment, which he was ordered to serve after he completed his six-year sentence for the sodomy case.
His trial and conviction were widely discredited by the international community. Amnesty International stated that the trial proceedings "exposed a pattern of political manipulation of key state institutions including the police, public prosecutor’s office and the judiciary" and declared Anwar a prisoner of conscience, stating that he had been arrested in order to silence him as a political opponent. Many world leaders, including US Vice-President Al Gore, called for his release from prison.
His conviction was overturned by the Malaysian Supreme Court and Anwar was finally released from solitary confinement on 2 September 2004.
Anwar was further implicated in several sodomy cases where he was accused of homosexuality, which was basically a set up to defame him, by none other than Mahathir. Further along the line, after Mahathir stepped down, and Anwar had gained freedom, Anwar started the Parti Keadilan Nasional (PKN - National Justice Party) and began his second foray into politics. He was joined by both his wife and daughter who both have been fielded as candidates in previous elections. Along the way, Anwar was again indicted for sodomy during the Najib administration (the current administration).
It's interesting to see the forces in play here, and to connect what I've learned about geopolitics from SoTT to what's happening in my country, Malaysia. It would seem that Anwar was taken in his early years by the IMF line and had support from senior US officials, while Mahathir tried hard to stop this foreign influence from getting ahold of the country's economy. In any case, it gets more interesting further on as politics has a way of making strange bedfellows...
[to be continued]