The Unravelling Of A “Malay Consensus”

Abstract

While the Asian financial crisis had ebbed by late 1999, Malaysia was still raging with its own political turmoil. Long after former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had been sacked and imprisoned, opposition towards the Mahathir government appeared strident. The United Malays National Organization (UMNO) ? hitherto seen as pivotal for political stability in the country ? continued to grapple for a blueprint to sustain its dominance of the Malay polity. Although Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad rode through both the financial and the Anwar crises relatively unscathed, albeit through heavy-handed measures, his political survival did not seem guaranteed. The position UMNO finds itself in today is not comparable to the many rounds of crises that the party had been through in recent decades. Previous crises were resolved quickly, but the Anwar episode has deprived UMNO of a continuing ideological rationale for its self-perpetuation. UMNO and Dr Mahathir found themselves entangled in events which were reduced to a series of political responses, defences, and vendettas that contributed litde to the party's consolidation. This chapter analyses how and why UMNO successfully overcame earlier crises in contrast to its latest experience. Recent events show a beleaguered party attempting to rebound from the Anwar crisis. However, although faced by one of the worst challenges to its political dominance, the party may still maintain a prolonged national presence. This is because the general viability of other Malay-based parties in garnering wider, sustainable multiracial support as well as providing a course for a new politics is still in question. In this regard, the final section of this chapter discusses the problems and prospects of the two main Malay-based opposition parties, the Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Islamic Party of Malaysia, or PAS) and the Parti KeADILan Nasional (National Justice Party, or keADILan). These two parties came together with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the Parti Rakyat Malaysia (People's Party of Malaysia, or PRM) in 1999 to form the Alternative Front (Barisan Alternatif), constituting a much strengthened opposition force against the ruling National Front (Barisan Nasional) during the last general election.