Abstract

Why has Malaysia’s politics, long counted among the most stable in East Asia, suddenly lost durability? Explanation starts with a single-party dominant system, reinforced by a hybrid political regime and grounded in a divided and ranked social structure. In this configuration, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) operated as the single dominant party. And insulated by the hybrid regime and supported by ethnic constituencies, UMNO won ten consecutive general elections between 1974 and 2014. But for reasons explored in this analysis, UMNO gradually lost elite cohesion and constituent support. leading to its momentous electoral defeat in 2018 . This fragmented the single-party dominant system and its hybrid regime scaffolding. Accordingly, Malaysia’s politics has been cast from single-party dominance into multi-party mayhem, with scant chances for re-equilibration any time soon.

Source: Muhyiddin Yassin, Twitter

About the Author

William Case is Professor and Head of School of Politics, History and International Relations at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. He was previously Professor of Southeast Asian politics and Director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) at City University of Hong Kong; Associate Professor in the Department of International Business and Asian Studies at Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia); Lecturer at University College, University of New South Wales, Australian Defense Force Academy; and Adjunct Lecturer at MARA University (Institute) of Technology (Shah Alam, Malaysia). He has also held visiting or research positions at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University; Ateneo de Manila University; University of Malaya; De La Salle University (Manila); National University of Malaysia; University of the Philippines at Diliman; Chulalongkorn University; and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Jakarta).