Malaysian Politics Research Articles

Imagining hybrid cosmopolitan Malaysia through Chinese kung fu comedies: Nasi Lemak 2.0 (2011) and Petaling Street Warriors (2011)

This article focuses on two Malaysian nonsensical kung fu comedies, Nasi Lemak 2.0 (Namewee, 2011) and Petaling Street Warriors (James Lee, 2011), that might be regarded as quirky, slightly off-kilter Chinese genre films for their multilingual and multi-ethnic casting. But these films are culturally and geographically rooted in the specificities of contemporary Malaysian politics. Using Bakhtin's concept of heteroglossia to enable a richer reading of these films that deploy an ostensibly ‘Chinese’ genre made universal by Stephen Chow Sing-Chi, I demonstrate how the ‘imagined community’ envisioned in these two films is hybrid, cosmopolitan and subverts racialized Malaysian identities. Such a reading serves to counter certain expectations of a monologic global style of kung fu film. By emphasizing such localized particularities and difference, these Malaysian Chinese films provide instances of ‘accented cinema’ that constantly problematize the homogenizing tendency of perceiving them as universal products.

A Primordial Anxiety

Ethnicity is a turbulent factor in Malaysian politics and society. Through decades of inter-ethnic tension fostered by ideological engineering, itself building on a history of ethnic manipulation and polarisation in colonial times, racialised tension has remained at best dormant and at worst prone to erupt in riots reminiscent of the May 1969 riots. This study examines the discourse of ethnicity from Malaysia’s colonial roots up to the mid-20th century and beyond, seeking to highlight how trauma and struggle were integral to the very formation of ethnic consciousness. This work will also explore how, despite numerous writers questioning the naive “essentialising” of ethnicity, they no less mistakenly perceive ethnicity in terms which reduce it to a de-centred hybridised performance. The works of writers like Colin Abraham, Sumit Mandal and Maznah Mohamad will be surveyed to elucidate the traumatic element inherent to ethnicity itself. A Lacanian psychoanalytical framework will be used to argue, with a special focus on the Malays, that ethnic solidarity should rather be grounded in a constructive primordial frustration, i.e., it is a traumatic anti-essence which will ignite solidarity and a mutual longing for democracy among the various ethnic groups. Ontological trauma—not a universal essence, not cultural particulars, not deconstructed performatives and certainly not political ideology—could be the force that compels Malaysia’s volatile ethnic groups to co-exist and work together in nation-building.

Disorderly Conduct

Psychoanalysis is gaining popularity as a tool for interrogating political problems. This paper applies the three fundamental diagnostic categories of neurosis, psychosis and perversion to Malaysian socio-political discourse. This endeavour is urgent given the political upheavals in the country since the 2008 general elections where the ruling National Alliance regime lost its two-third majority in parliament, a result repeated again five years later at the thirteenth general elections. Nevertheless, democratic abuses and religious extremism remain strife (and has arguably grown worse) in the country. Political action is thus rendered even more urgent and thus, arguably, the need for fresh lenses with which to view the present (and even past) injustices perpetuated by the reigning administration. As such, this paper will analyse issues and events like the ‘Allah’ controversy, Mahathirism, Ops Lalang and cronyism in Malaysian politics, and seeks to do so using conceptual tools of a Lacanian-Žižekian nature. If the nature of the problem can be reviewed and rethought, perhaps a new way of thinking about the solutions may also arise, leading even to a reimagining of the very idea of the political.

Political Power-Sharing from Islamic Perspective( Tahaluf al-Siyasi Fi al-Islam): Muslim’s Experience in Malaysia

Political Power-Sharing from Islamic Perspective( Tahaluf al-Siyasi Fi al-Islam): Muslim’s Experience in Malaysia Lukman Thaib Abstract Malaysia is a multicultural society with Malays, Chinese ,and Indian living side by side in peace. Although the Malaysia’s identification with race remains strong, however, a powerful sense of being Malaysian prevail among the population. This paper will examines Islamic point of view on the participation of Muslim political parties in the coalition government consisting of political partners with a semisecular agenda, the writing also will explores what are the Malay values system and its ability to support power-sharing among different ethnics groups in Malaysian politics, and how the Malaysian power –sharing model has contributed to Malaysian political stability. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jisc.v2n4a3

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Implementation in Malaysian Political Parties

yet implemented in Malaysia. Given that, this paper provides a preliminary case study on how Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS), as one of Muslim dominant parties in Malaysia, incorporates ICT into their organizations.

The Evolution of a Muslim Democrat: The Life of Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim

Long before the recent Arab Spring, when the topic of democracy with in many Muslim countries took center stage internationally, Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim, an energetic and charismatic politician, had been one of the most vocal global proponents of the compatibility of Islam and democratic principles. Anwar, who at one time was asked to be secretary-general of the United Nations, has lived a life that is a compelling testimony of the growth and evolution of his love for his country and his faith. Anwar has been active at the highest levels of Malaysian politics for over thirty years, and though he has been jailed for his activism on several occasions, he continues to be a dynamic, passionate voice for the diverse cultures, religions, and peoples of Malaysia. Anwar's life story is told in a factual, impartial way, and his one-on-one interviews with this book's author add a personal component. This volume is essential reading for scholars and students interested in Islamic politics and South East Asian studies.

Anti-polarization identity politics in Malaysia: critical race subjects and the theatre of Leow Puay Tin

Contemporary theories of racial identity have argued that race is ultimately a social-political construct rather than a primordial, biological or even cultural essence. In this article, I examine the work of the theatre activist Leow Puay Tin and explore how dissident cultural representations are mobilized in Malaysia in response to the politics of Malay domination and the coloniality of raciological social conditions. I propose the concept of a ‘critical race subject’ in Malaysian cultural politics – a social actor who articulates a voice that goes beyond the confines of established ethno-racial self-interest, in this case Malaysian Chineseness. Critical race subjects, like Leow, work to exceed the limits of the reified racial logics of Malaysian politics, albeit from particularistic standpoints of experience. In so doing they disrupt the re-inscriptions of power relations configured through reiterative racialization, authoritarian capitalist developmentalism and institutionalized ethnic conflict.

Liberal Rights versus Islamic Law? The Construction of a Binary in Malaysian Politics

Why are liberal rights and Islamic law understood in binary and exclusivist terms at some moments, but not others? In this study, I trace when, why, and how an Islamic law versus liberal rights binary emerged in Malaysian political discourse and popular legal consciousness. I find that Malaysian legal institutions were hardwired to produce vexing legal questions, which competing groups of activists transformed into compelling narratives of injustice. By tracing the development of this spectacle in the courtroom and beyond, I show how the dueling binaries of liberal rights versus Islamic law, individual rights versus collective rights, and secularism versus religion were contingent on institutional design and political agency, rather than irreconcilable tensions between liberal rights and the Islamic legal tradition in some intrinsic sense. More broadly, the research contributes to our understanding of how popular legal consciousness is shaped by legal mobilization and countermobilization beyond the court of law.

More Talk than Walk? UMNO, “New Politics” and Legitimation in Contemporary Malaysia

The aftermath of the 2008 general election saw a series of upheavals occur in the Malaysian political landscape, not least of which was the emergence of a so-called “new politics.” Driven primarily by concerns over issues of public governance, this politics contained a set of interrelated questions involving changing notions of legitimate political authority. Although much has already been written about whether or not the post-2008 changes to Malaysia's socio-political terrain are genuine and enduring, I argue that many such analyses are too narrow in scope and fail to adequately recognise the complexity involved in such social realities. By distinguishing between the images and practices of the Malaysian state, this article aims to highlight the dynamic, contingent and contested nature of processes of legitimation. A detailed investigation of the consensus/dissensus surrounding Prime Minister Najib Razak's concept of 1Malaysia as the basis of a collective national identity reveals a more fundamental contestation occurring within contemporary Malaysian politics and society over the source(s) of political and moral legitimacy. While the opposition's challenge to Najib's administration remains formidable, of more pressing concern to Najib might be the objections arising from within his own party over the direction in which he is taking them. To define the present horizon of socio-political possibilities in Malaysia it is not enough, therefore, to simply explain how legitimation occurs; we must also be able to account for the way(s) in which it can occur.

Coalitions and Competition in Malaysia -Incremental Transformation of a Strong-party System

The seeming entrenchment of a two-coalition system in Malaysia solidifies the centrality of strongly institutionalised parties in the polity. The primary parties in Malaysia reach deeply into society and nest within dense networks of both intra-party and external organisations. Given this order -which differentiates Malaysia from its neighbours in the region – political liberalisation, if it happens, should be expected largely via electoral politics, and, specifically, through inter-party challenges. Indeed, the ideological and material premises of the emergent Pakatan Rakyat (People's Alliance) differ substantially from those of the long-standing Barisan Nasional (National Front), even as both pursue the same broad swathe of voters. This distinction reflects and furthers transformation in Malaysian politics, including not just a shift in the salience of communal identities and in policy proposals and issues, but also in patterns of political engagement both within and outside of parties, regardless of which coalition controls parliament.

The Rise of Constitutional Patriotism in Malaysian Civil Society

This paper aims to account for the resurgent interest in the protections provided in the Malaysian Federal Constitution and to understand the rights-based language used by Malaysian civil society actors over the past few years. Observers of Malaysian politics have concluded that since the 1980s the country has been “taking the long march to desecularisation” (Kessler, 2008). I argue, however, that Habermas’ notion of “constitutional patriotism” is alive and well in Malaysia and that it stands as a counterpoint to the trend of desecularisation. Constitutional patriotism is in fact growing, partly as a response to the concatenation of Islamisation and the discourse of Malay ethnic hegemony (ketuanan Melayu) which perpetuates identity boundaries between Malays and non-Malays and between Muslims and non-Muslims.Using discourse analysis to examine blogs and media reports, this paper illustrates that conscientious individuals and civil society invoke the discourse of citizenship and constitutional rights to counter the dominant politics of race perpetuated by the National Front (Barisan Nasional).They actively assume or perform “acts of citizenship” (Isin and Nielsen, 2008) that invoke patriotism towards the Constitution. I posit that constitutional patriotism in the Malaysian case is a call to return to the Constitution’s liberal democratic ideals that recognise religious and ethnic diversity.

A “Memoryscape” Malayan Union 1946: The Beginning and Rise of Modern Malay Political Culture

This study researches an experiential and narration-oriented of historiography of an event in Malaysia, theMalayan Union 1946. The Malayan Union was introduced by the British just immediately after the end of theSecond World War, the ending of Japanese Occupation in Malaya. In October, 1945, the British announced abold decision to end their indirect rule in the Malay states through uniting all the states into a Malayan Unionunder a Governor with executive powers. The proposal also initiated a Malayan form of citizenship which wouldgive equal rights to those who claim Malaya as their homeland. On 1st April 1946, the Malayan Union officiallycame into existence with Sir Edward Gent as the Governor. The Malays opposed the creation of the Union.Several aspects were seen to be the beginning and rise of modern Malay political culture; (1) the formation of afirst Malay political party, (2) defending of the Sultanate as the highest Malay rulers, (3) defending the Malayrights and privileges of their homeland, (4) the reformation of Malay and Malayan politics, (5) the beginning of‘social contract’ between the Malay and the non-Malay immigrants and their descendants, (6) the participation ofnon-Malays in Malayan politics, (7) birth of the independent of Malaya from the British, and (8) the birth of theConstitution of Malaysia. These factors shall be discussed as inscription of historical memory. Nevertheless, thepost-Malayan Union that escalates to today’s political landscape as somehow sees the event and situationdifferently as what being seen before. This study will analyze these thoughts through a constructive discussioninferring the future of Malaysian politics of pluralism.

‘Searching for the truth’: tracing the moral properties of blood in Malaysian clinical pathology labs

This paper begins with a remarkable moment in contemporary Malaysian politics when a contested blood sample of the leader of the opposition was claimed by some as having the capacity to ‘reveal the truth’ about his character. What is it about blood that gives it this iconic status? Drawing on research carried out in hospital clinical pathology labs and blood banks in Penang, the paper shows how blood samples, far from being detached from persons, may accrue layers of meaning as they travel round the lab. This occurs partly through the special properties of blood, and partly through the socially embedded interventions of laboratory staff. Tracing the social life of blood also allows us to grasp how the separation between domains of social life, which is fundamental to an ideology of modernity, must be laboriously achieved, and can often be only precariously maintained. In the case of blood, however, the stakes may be unusually high when the boundaries between, for example, biomedicine and politics or kinship become over‐permeable or threaten to collapse.

Can Islam and "Islamization" Be a Force for Refugee Rights in Malaysia?

Malaysia has ratified neither the 1951 Refugee Convention nor the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Accordingly, refugees in Malaysia are not accorded legal status and, like other irregular migrants, face arrest, detention, and basic human rights violations on a daily basis. This Article argues that invoking the importance of asylum in Islam (Malaysia’s “official religion” according to the Federal Constitution) will provoke moral sensibilities and inspire legal reform of Malaysia’s refugee rights protection framework, given the aggrandized role of Islam in Malaysian politics and public law, which now extends beyond the syariah (Islamic law) jurisdiction. This Article then considers whether the court is the most appropriate forum for such advocacy: it proposes a constitutional litigation strategy, analyzes Malaysia’s constitutional jurisprudence, and examines the larger implications of this litigation strategy in Malaysian society, especially regarding the religious freedom of Muslims who seek to renounce their Islamic faith. More broadly, this Malaysian case study supports a religious, rather than a secular model of human rights, and demonstrates why and when religion can be a force for, rather than an obstacle to, human rights. It also challenges the Vienna Declaration’s claims that human rights are inalienable, universal, indivisible and inter-related.

The New Media and Malaysian Politics in Historical Perspective

This essay is a critical examination of the ability of Malaysia’s new media to promote political liberalization. Drawing on a historical approach to Malaysia’s political development since independence, it argues that the political effects of the rise of Malaysia’s new media are best understood as being parallel to those of modernization and socio-economic change from previous decades, which augured important changes in the political strategies of incumbent and opposition politicians, but did not upset the fundamental logic through which the Barisan Nasional (BN) regime has ruled since the 1970s. That logic of rule is closely attuned to Malaysia’s cleavage structure, which centres on ethnicity and the economy and which has pervaded the country’s politics since independence. Malaysia’s new media — despite being far more open to critical voices than its establishment print and broadcast media — serve as venue in which more basic political conflicts are waged. Although Malaysia’s 13th General Elections may spell further losses for the ruling BN, this essay argues that the rise of Malaysia’s new media is unlikely to be responsible for political liberalization. Instead, liberalizing pressures are most likely to be effective when groups targeting democratic processes and procedures, thereby superseding Malaysia’s cleavage politics.

Hobbism and the Problem of Authoritarian Rule in Malaysia

In this paper, I argue that there is a significant juridical root to the problem of authoritarian rule in Malaysia. That root is Hobbism, an authoritarian conception of legal authority as a solution to the problem of political instability. I show its influence by focusing on three pivotal events in Malaysia’s legal and political history. The analysis aims to provide a more nuanced picture of the factors that contribute to the problem of authoritarianism in Malaysia and to suggest that these factors are not purely political; they also have a basis in how officials conceive of legal authority. My argument shows that the influence of Hobbism has worked in both ways to produce the problem of authoritarianism in Malaysia. It has subverted well-minded officials from affirming the ideals of democracy and the rule of law while allowing authoritarian politicians to exploit Hobbism to serve their authoritarian aims. I argue that Hobbism is so well entrenched in the legal and political culture that Malaysian law and politics will not easily transition to more meaningfully express a commitment to serve the ideals of democracy and the rule of law.

The discourse of power and knowledge in the social sciences and study of Muslim society

This article examines parallels between contemporary Western and Muslim thought. It proposes that there is congruence in Western and Muslim political thought on issues of soft foundationalism, negative theology, provisional truth claims and religious democracy to offset hegemonic tendencies. In the social sciences, specifically political science, the neutralization of ideology is also supported in response to concern about ideological encroachments into the discipline. In addition, the article discusses the residual issue of positivism and knowledge as social construction, i.e. the social sciences themselves as ideological with regard to the agnostic position of their methodology. This has implications for the study of religion, in this case Islam, and the field's problematic nomenclature, such as Islamism and, now, post-Islamism. This is explored through a discussion of the Arab Spring and Malaysian politics. The article concludes that similar concerns on the relationship between power and knowledge in contemporary Western and Muslim thought are beneficial to the social sciences and their study of the Muslim world's transformation as a social and political phenomenon.

The Word was Not Made Flesh: Theological Reflections on the Banning of Seksualiti Merdeka 2011

Abstract: In November 2011, the Malaysian sexuality rights festival Seksualiti Merdeka was banned after being labelled immoral and subversive. The organizers insisted that the festival was a forum for the voices of sexual minorities and that the ban was politically motivated. By examining the rhetoric surrounding this festival in the Malaysian media, this article aims to uncover how the tensions between Malaysian politics and religion affect the lives of queer Malaysians in terms of human rights before providing a Christian theological response.

Malaysian Politics: Anwar and Najib's Moment of Truth

Anwar Ibrahim was found not guilty of sodomy on 9 January 2012. The verdict was a surprise ending to a two-year trial widely seen as a politically motivated attempt to cripple Mr Anwar's attempt to...

Piety and Politics:

For much of the twentieth century, race and ethnicity formed the basis ofMalaysian politics and, therefore, dominated its discourse. This book exploreshow over the past thirty years the politics of Malaysia, which wasonly approximately 60 percent Muslim, moved strongly in an Islamist direction,indeed, “how Islam—in particular its ideological and institutionalexpressions—informs the configuration of power, the nature of legitimacy,and the sources of authority in Malaysian politics and society today” (xii).To do so, Liow first examines the genesis of the Islamist agenda from theperspective of the two major political parties—the Islamist oppositionParti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) and the dominant United Malay NationalOrganisation (UMNO)—showing how the latter went through severalchanges as it evolved to place Islamism at the center of its sociopoliticalagenda. He then proceeds to show how the UMNO-led government of Malaysia began to create institutions of Islamic governance, a process heterms the “bureaucratization” of Islam, which formed the basis for PrimeMinister Mahathir’s claim in the 1990s that Malaysia, constitutionally asecular state, was an Islamic state. As he does so, he notes the tensions thatthese developments caused between the federal and state administration onthe one hand and civil and religious law on the other. Liow moves on toexplore the debate from the 1990s between PAS and UMNO, and withinPAS itself, on how Islam might be expressed as the organizing principlefor society and politics in a religiously plural Malaysia and how the non-Muslim communities responded to the parties’ endeavors ...