Eventful Year Ahead in Malaysian Politics

TODAY

10 February 2015

Yang Razali Kassim

Finally, after months of a divisive cold war, leaders of the Malaysian opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance met over the weekend to pull back from the brink of a break-up. The question is whether this was a serious attempt at patching up, or only a token gesture to paper over, yet again, their differences.

Coming just before the Federal Court verdict today on opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim — which could break the opposition alliance for good — Sunday’s meeting has swept their differences under the carpet for now.

The situation is not much better either on the other side of the political divide. Prime Minister Najib Razak seems increasingly buffeted on the political and economic fronts. He now walks under the looming shadows of not one, but three major airplane disasters affecting Malaysian interests in only one year. He is probably the first Malaysian leader since independence to face such unprecedented misfortune while in power. So what lies ahead for Malaysian politics?

…Yang Razali Kassim is a senior fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University.

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Last updated on 10/02/2015