Malaysia gets a new government, but race still rules

Derwin Pereira says while the electoral defeat of Najib Razak’s Barisan Nasional reflected a disgust with the status quo that cuts across the races, people still largely voted according to ethnic preferences, and the concept of Malay supremacy remains intact – for now

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Malaysia's demographic status quo has not changed, although the electoral status quo is gone. Thus, a revolution in a constitutional teacup. Illustration: Craig Stephens

Published: 11:15am, 18 May 2018Updated: 7:05pm, 18 May 2018

Malaysia's 14th general election was nothing less than a revolutionary storm in a constitutional teacup. Short of casting the Barisan Nasional (BN) physically into the seas after six decades of rule, voters consigned it to the parliamentary backwaters.

This month, Malaysia became part of the democratic trajectory of East Asia. Fed up with a ruling coalition that was corrupt beyond repentance, Malaysians upset the status quo and chose the opposition Pakatan Harapan alliance to give their country a new lease of life.

A revolution in Malaysia? Not so fast ...

The most important aspect of the election is that the results reflected a disgust with the status quo that cuts across races. Ethnic sensitives have shaped politics in Malaysia ever since the country gained independence from Britain in 1957. The majority Malays, the economically powerful Chinese, Indians and other communities have never been integrated sufficiently to the point where they would not need separate political parties to represent their interests.

Instead, those interests are embedded in coalition politics. BN's component parties reflect a rainbow of ethnic identities: the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) and others. At this election, Umno suffered severe setbacks while the MCA and MIC were nearly wiped off the electoral map.

Of course, power has only passed from a multiracial coalition to a multiracial alliance. The Pakatan Harapan includes the nominally multiracial but dominantly Malay Parti Keadilan Rakyat; the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), another Malay party; and the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP). Bersatu is significant because it is led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's longest-serving premier, who returned to the political stage at the age of 92 to defeat the BN's incumbent prime minister, Najib Razak.