Malaysia Forum

It was a pleasant moment when our teleconferencing with Bridget Welsh, an Assistant Professor in the Southeast Asia Program at Johns Hopkins University and a political analyst, was initially interrupted by technical glitches, reminding us of the near distance we have between Malaysia and its politics.

Welsh celebrated the recent elections for its “democratic opening” and “fundamental transformation” in electoral outcome. She said it had reflected a rise of an “increasingly sophisticated electorate,” which implicitly posed the question of “What should the government be doing.” The election pointed to how Barisan Nasional (BN) is “never going to be same again” but has to reform to maintain political hegemony, and also showed that “cooperation between opposition can be effective.” However, since the opposition parties “did not cooperate to govern but to win seats,” the challenge is to work together and prove that the “negative vote” against BN is indeed also a “positive vote” for the opposition.

Several challenges were highlighted: the lack of experience of younger candidates, an inconsistent cabinet, sultans challenging leadership in different states for a more representative leadership; sharp differences of opinions on the NEP and other racial questions; the rise of multiple sovereignties. Welsh also predicted that East Malaysia would emerge as “a pivotal player of Malaysian politics” and that Keadilan would be the focal point of these debates. She also pointed out that political power had previously been centralized around a single person; there is a heavy focus on personality figures within the party, rather than the focus of taking care of public interest.

At the end, Welsh underscored that “everyone in the room can make a big difference”. She suggested: -

1) 1) Share your opinions and insights with each other and back in Malaysia

2) 2) Offer your talents that the Malaysian education system has snubbed;“don’t stay here, go back” since the government needs to hear the different ideas

3) 3) Remind people that this issues mentioned have to be incorporated into the system – younger leaders have to be more open

Posted by nickwong / NMF 2008