Identity Politics and Elections in Malaysia and Indonesia: Ethnic Engineering in Borneo

Abstract

Identity Politics and Elections in Malaysia and Indonesia: Ethnic Engineering in Borneo. By Karolina Prasad. Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, 2016. Hardcover: 215pp. In this book, Karolina Prasad attempts to study how institutions, particularly political parties, play a role in changing identities in consociational and centripetal polities. In the context of Southeast Asian politics, studies on the role of ethnicity in electoral politics are numerous. In Malaysia, for instance, scholars have often tried to identify the link between voters' identity and their political choices. The usual method to explore this link is to examine voters' voting preferences towards candidates and political parties that have strong appeals. For instance, the bulk of support for the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) comes primarily from Malays, while support for the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) comes from the Chinese and Indian electorates respectively. In the eastern Malaysian provinces of Sabah and Sarawak, most, if not all, of the political parties depend heavily on the support of particular groups. The second largest party in Sabah, the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), is primarily a Kadazandusun-based party even though it claims to represent the wider interests of Sabah's culturally diverse society. In Sarawak, key parties such as the Parti Pesaka Bersatu (PBB), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) all operate based on certain appeals. In this context, Prasad's main contribution to the research on politics is that she explores how identity (or identities or categories) is activated in different political settings. The author looks at this ethnic identity (pp. 144-92) by assessing how political actors and institutions maximize their electoral support over time, and across different geographical areas. Scholars often take the primordial approach to understanding the role of ethnicity in electoral politics. While one cannot totally discount the power of primordial sentiment in influencing political choices, Prasad proposes a more nuanced approach to exploring the role of political institutions in changing identities, primarily in societies divided by and religious differences. By comparing Sarawak and West Kalimantan, the author manages to elucidate the point that the nature and processes of identity vary from one polity to another. The author notes that in Sarawak identity change is much more explicit, and the role of institutions more direct. The Sarawak case also shows that the role of the federal government is also significant in the activation of categories. A case in point is the Malay-Muslim-dominated federal government which works closely with Malay-Melanau state local leaders to strengthen and spearhead Malay-Muslim interests in Sarawak. …