After a historic victory in the May 2018 general election (GE14), the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government has found that it is hard to implement change in Malaysia due to challenges that come with balancing reforms with political costs, and complications that come with coalition politics, wrote Adrian Tan, Coordinator of the Malaysia Programme at RSIS, in a commentary. He added that to win the next GE, PH must govern in a way that will win them votes, but that could mean that some of its reform promises have to be sacrificed on the altar of political necessity.

….Adrian Tan is Coordinator of the Malaysia Programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. This first appeared in RSIS Commentary.