Malaysia 1990: The Election Show‑down

Abstract

In October 1990, the long awaited show-down elections were finally held, a year before the Parliament was legally required to be dissolved. The elections had been expected because the Prime Minister, leader of UMNO Baru (the new United Malays National Organization), felt that he needed a new mandate from the Malay community to get on with the task of governing more effectively, in view of the challenge from Semangat '46 (Spirit of'46), a splinter group from the old UMNO which claimed to be the legitimate heir. The elections in 1990 were of special significance for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it was the first time since independence that a credible opposition which could actually form a government had emerged. The multi-ethnic opposition coalition was led by prominent, establishment Malays that included many former Cabinet members. Two surviving Prime Ministers, former chief ministers, and members of the royal households, including a sultan, could be counted as its supporters. The opposition members could not be dismissed as mere trouble makers or disloyal elements as they had been in the past. Secondly, the opposition parties had been able to mount a co-ordinated campaign against the ruling coalition. In the past, the disparate opposition parties took each other to task as much as they attacked the government. This time, Semangat '46 allied with Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) and two other minor Muslim parties based in Kelantan to challenge UMNO in the northeastern Malay belt. In the urban centres and the west coast, Semangat '46 formed the Gagasan Rakyat Malaysia party (Malaysian People's Might) with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and three other smaller parties to take on UMNO and its partners in the Barisan Nasional (National Front). Instead of campaigning to deny the ruling Barisan of its two-thirds majority in the national Parliament, as it had always done, the opposition shifted to the need for a two-coalition system and an alternative government. Thus, when the elections were finally called, expectations among both participants and observers were high.