<![CDATA[Malaysia’s elections: Down to the wire]]> Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:04:09 +0000 21568847 at <![CDATA[The world in figures: Countries: Malaysia]]> A Mukhriz win will weaken Najib | Free Malaysia Today A Mukhriz win will weaken Najib September 28, 2013 The Economist, in its latest edition, also says Umno has returned to its old habit of race-based handouts PETALING JAYA: The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) is the dominant party in the coalition that has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957. Only now, however, is it parading its democratic credentials, so far as its internal appointments go. Nominations have just closed for elections to a broad range of party posts, to be decided in the middle of October by 146,000-odd party delegates at local level. Previously, a mere 2,600 members, those who attended the party’s convention, had a say.

UMNO’s boosters claim that these new elections will restore vim to an ageing organisation. They say it will make it the most genuinely democratic party in the country. Not bad for an outfit with a past reputation as a ruthless political machine. Yet what might be therapeutic for UMNO could prove the reverse for Malaysia. For what has emerged during the electoral process is that the so-called “warlords” who run the party are determined to shift the country in a conservative, indeed reactionary, direction. They want to reassert the supremacy of ethnic Malays. UMNO was formed to represent these and other “indigenous” groups who make up a majority in this multiracial country. They were favoured over other ethnic groups, principally the Chinese, who account for about 25% of the population and run much of Malaysia’s business, and Indians, with 7% of the population and a disproportionate presence in the professions. A return to race-tinged policies represents a repudiation of much of what the head of UMNO and prime minister, Najib Razak, claimed to stand for during a general election in May. How distant that poll now seems. Indeed, UMNO’s regression is a direct response to the election’s outcome.

Though the UMNO-led ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN), won the election, its performance was its worst ever. The BN’s share of the popular vote fell to just 47%. UMNO blamed what it saw as a near calamity on the defection of a large share of the Chinese vote to the opposition, led by Anwar Ibrahim, a political veteran—despite Mr Najib’s concerted efforts to woo Chinese and Indian voters. The lesson that UMNO has now drawn is that the more inclusive and liberal style of politics promoted by Najib does not work. So the party has reverted to the bad old ways of race-based politics to shore up the Malay base, at the expense of those who were ungrateful enough to vote for the opposition. The main casualty of this retreat is Najib himself. Before the election he had come to be seen as a great reformer, winning the centre ground of politics. He repealed outdated security legislation and was slowly rolling back the system of ethnic preferences, begun in 1971, that give Malays a leg-up over Chinese and Indians considered to have benefited unfairly from the colonial economy of the British. Yet to survive an onslaught from his conservative wing, Najib has been forced to backtrack abruptly.

On September 14th he announced a raft of initiatives privileging ethnic Malays. Known as the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment (BEE) programme, they are worth approaching $10 billion and will benefit only ethnic Malays and other indigenous peoples. Bumiputera, meaning “sons of the soil”, make up 68% of the population. The BEE will dish out loans for entrepreneurs, for instance, and will require every government ministry to carve out contracts from big projects to award to bumiputera-owned businesses. In future state companies will have to establish targets for bumiputera participation. Najib couched his extraordinary about-turn in terms of fairness and “equity” for ethnic Malays. But it was also a blatant attempt to please party critics who feel that he abandoned Malays at the election. His government threw those critics more red meat when the attorney-general’s office said it was appealing against the acquittal earlier this year of Anwar on charges of sodomy, a politically motivated case that had dragged on for years. However cynical, these moves seem to have saved Najib’s skin, at least for the moment. He will not face a leadership challenge in the UMNO elections.

The prime minister has been helped by the fact that, in the end, UMNO hardliners could find no sufficiently weighty figure to take him on. Yet that hardly matters to them, since they have forced Najib to shift direction. There is no denying the damage to Najib’s credibility. To many Malaysians, even ethnic Malays, Najib has sacrificed political principles to save his job. His campaigning slogan of “1Malaysia”, emphasising racial harmony, now rings hollow. What is more, says Kadir Jasin, an UMNO critic of Najib, it might prove only a temporary respite for the prime minister. The conservative wing is contesting many of the UMNO posts up for grabs, including the three influential positions of vice-president. One candidate, Mukhriz Mahathir, the governor of Kedah state, is a particular threat. He is the youngest son of Mahathir Mohamad, who dominated Malaysian politics as prime minister from 1981 to 2003. The champion of bumiputera policies remains a hero to many Malays, and his lustre rubs off on his son.

Should Mukhriz win, the anti-Najib forces could coalesce around him as a proxy for his father. A weakened prime minister could then be ousted in an internal putsch, a fate that befell Mr Najib’s predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who also failed to deliver at the polls. Meanwhile a stuttering Malaysian economy will somehow have to raise the necessary billions for the new BEE programme. A brain drain abroad of talented Chinese- and Indian-Malaysians, disgusted by the overt racism of it all, will continue. And the country’s stated goal of becoming a prosperous economy by 2020 will recede further. So much for Najib’s great reforms. -The Economist Politics in Malaysia: Bumi, not booming | The Economist purchase-rights icon THE United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) is the dominant party in the coalition that has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957. Only now, however, is it parading its democratic credentials, so far as its internal appointments go. Nominations have just closed for elections to a broad range of party posts, to be decided in the middle of October by 146,000-odd party delegates at local level.

Previously, a mere 2,600 members, those who attended the party’s convention, had a say. UMNO’s boosters claim that these new elections will restore vim to an ageing organisation. They say it will make it the most genuinely democratic party in the country. Not bad for an outfit with a past reputation as a ruthless political machine. Yet what might be therapeutic for UMNO could prove the reverse for Malaysia. For what has emerged during the electoral process is that the so-called “warlords” who run the party are determined to shift the country in a conservative, indeed reactionary, direction. They want to reassert the supremacy of ethnic Malays. UMNO was formed to represent these and other “indigenous” groups who make up a majority in this multiracial country. They were favoured over other ethnic groups, principally the Chinese, who account for about 25% of the population and run much of Malaysia’s business, and Indians, with 7% of the population and a disproportionate presence in the professions. A return to race-tinged policies represents a repudiation of much of what the head of UMNO and prime minister, Najib Razak (pictured above), claimed to stand for during a general election in May.

How distant that poll now seems. Indeed, UMNO’s regression is a direct response to the election’s outcome. Though the UMNO-led ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN), won the election, its performance was its worst ever. The BN’s share of the popular vote fell to just 47%. UMNO blamed what it saw as a near calamity on the defection of a large share of the Chinese vote to the opposition, led by Anwar Ibrahim, a political veteran—despite Mr Najib’s concerted efforts to woo Chinese and Indian voters. The lesson that UMNO has now drawn is that the more inclusive and liberal style of politics promoted by Mr Najib does not work. So the party has reverted to the bad old ways of race-based politics to shore up the Malay base, at the expense of those who were ungrateful enough to vote for the opposition. The main casualty of this retreat is Mr Najib himself. Before the election he had come to be seen as a great reformer, winning the centre ground of politics.

He repealed outdated security legislation and was slowly rolling back the system of ethnic preferences, begun in 1971, that give Malays a leg-up over Chinese and Indians considered to have benefited unfairly from the colonial economy of the British. Yet to survive an onslaught from his conservative wing, Mr Najib has been forced to backtrack abruptly. On September 14th he announced a raft of initiatives privileging ethnic Malays. Known as the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment (BEE) programme, they are worth approaching $10 billion and will benefit only ethnic Malays and other indigenous peoples (bumiputera, meaning “sons of the soil”, make up 68% of the population). The BEE will dish out loans for entrepreneurs, for instance, and will require every government ministry to carve out contracts from big projects to award to bumiputera-owned businesses. In future state companies will have to establish targets for bumiputera participation. Mr Najib couched his extraordinary about-turn in terms of fairness and “equity” for ethnic Malays. But it was also a blatant attempt to please party critics who feel that he abandoned Malays at the election.

His government threw those critics more red meat when the attorney-general’s office said it was appealing against the acquittal earlier this year of Mr Anwar on charges of sodomy, a politically motivated case that had dragged on for years. However cynical, these moves seem to have saved Mr Najib’s skin, at least for the moment. He will not face a leadership challenge in the UMNO elections. The prime minister has been helped by the fact that, in the end, UMNO hardliners could find no sufficiently weighty figure to take him on. Yet that hardly matters to them, since they have forced Mr Najib to shift direction. There is no denying the damage to Mr Najib’s credibility. To many Malaysians, even ethnic Malays, Mr Najib has sacrificed political principles to save his job. His campaigning slogan of “1Malaysia”, emphasising racial harmony, now rings hollow. What is more, says Kadir Jasin, an UMNO critic of Mr Najib, it might prove only a temporary respite for the prime minister. The conservative wing is contesting many of the UMNO posts up for grabs, including the three influential positions of vice-president.

One candidate, Mukhriz Mahathir, the governor of Kedah state, is a particular threat. He is the youngest son of Mahathir Mohamad, who dominated Malaysian politics as prime minister from 1981 to 2003. The champion of bumiputera policies remains a hero to many Malays, and his lustre rubs off on his son. Should Mr Mukhriz win, the anti-Najib forces could coalesce around him as a proxy for his father. A weakened prime minister could then be ousted in an internal putsch, a fate that befell Mr Najib’s predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who also failed to deliver at the polls. Meanwhile a stuttering Malaysian economy will somehow have to raise the necessary billions for the new BEE programme. A brain drain abroad of talented Chinese- and Indian-Malaysians, disgusted by the overt racism of it all, will continue. And the country’s stated goal of becoming a prosperous economy by 2020 will recede further. So much for Mr Najib’s great reforms.

The Rise of Islamism and Single-Party Rule in Malaysia | Middle East Institute The Rise of Islamism and Single-Party Rule in Malaysia Tweet PM Najib Razak - ASEAN Summit - Nov. 21, 2015 This series explores the threat posed by the rise of ISIS to Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, and efforts that the governments of the region have taken and could/should take to respond to it. Read More ... In February this year, the U.K. and Australian governments issued advisories warning citizens against travel to Malaysia. Heightened security in Southeast Asia followed the January Islamic State (IS)-inspired attack in downtown Jakarta, which had links to Malaysia. The February warning reflected intelligence relating to an imminent IS attack on Kuala Lumpur markets and night clubs popular with foreign tourists. The next month, the Malaysian government announced the arrest of 15 people, including a police officer and an airplane technician suspected of planning yet another attack. [1] The apparent reemergence of jihadist activity in Malaysia is disturbing and, perhaps, surprising for a country otherwise noted for its longstanding political stability, recent economic progress, and bright prospects.

Yet, as this essay demonstrates, beneath the surface is a tangle of festering problems that have contributed to the progressive alienation of elements within Malaysian society and rendered them susceptible to the appeal of transnational jihadist influences. The rise of Islamist radicalism is one of the more visible and worrisome signs of the erosion of the authority of Malaysia’s long-standing ruling party, the United Malay National Organization (UMNO) . Malaysia’s Recurring Jihadist Problem Jihadist activity in Malaysia is not new. Salafist militancy first took root in Malaysia in the 1980s. [2] Over the next decade, Malaysia played a key role in the evolution of Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Bashir, Hambali, and Abdullah Sungkah, after fleeing Indonesia in 1985, conducted missionary activity (dakwah) and established the Lukmanul Hakim boarding school in Johor Bahru, which before the fall of the Suharto regime had constituted the base for the evolving jihadist regional terror network and a hub for what became the South East Asian franchise of al-Qaeda. [3] Kuala Lumpur also played a role in the planning of the 9/11 attacks.

[4] Following the Bali bombings in 2002, Southeast Asia came to be regarded as the “second front of the war on terror”—a dubious distinction and one which, unfortunately, Malaysia had helped earn. However, Salafist jihadism in Malaysia, and in the region as a whole, seemed on the decline when, by 2011, JI’s leadership had been effectively decapitated and its “emir,” Abu Bakr Bashir, imprisoned. Meanwhile, jihadist activity appeared to have been confined to the Thai border region, where elements in Kelanatan and Kedah continued to facilitate the longstanding Malay Muslim insurgency in Southern Thailand. ... the emergence of the Islamic State (IS) and its self-declared caliphate in Mosul, Iraq in 2014 gave a new boost to Salafist jihadism and the dream of a Southeast Asian caliphate based on Shariah law. However, the emergence of the Islamic State and its self-declared caliphate in Mosul, Iraq in 2014 gave a new boost to Salafist jihadism and the dream of a Southeast Asian caliphate based on Shariah law.

Thereafter, IS propaganda widely disseminated on the internet became a potent lure to aspirant jihadists from both Indonesia and Malaysia. By 2015, an estimated 47 Malaysians were serving as foreign fighters in Syria. By 2016, seven had died in martyrdom operations. Two Malaysians conducted suicide bomb attacks in early 2016 that were responsible for 33 deaths in Raqqa and Baghdad. [5] Malaysians formed a core component of the Islamic State’s Southeast Asian unit, Katibah Nusantara, formed in 2014 and reportedly having grown to more than 200 dedicated fighters two years later. [6] The unit not only fought in Syria but proselytized the Islamic State’s ideology through Malay language videos, blog posts, and leaflets. It was a Katibah Nusantara cell that carried out the Jakarta attack in January 2014. [7] Between March 2015 and June 2016, Malaysian police and security agencies detained over 160 people with links to the Islamic State and disrupted ten plots to carry out attacks in Malaysia.

[8] Returning Katibah Nusantara fighters, or those with homegrown links to IS, were allegedly involved in all these plots, the most ambitious of which, only revealed in March 2016, involved the kidnapping of Prime Minister Najib Razak and attacks on Putrajaya, the nation’s administrative capital. Two months before this disclosure, the Malaysian Special Branch had arrested 13 suspects, including two servicemen involved in the operation. [9] As early as November 2014, Prime Minister Najib had recognized that the Islamic State threat “must be taken seriously.” [10] The same month, he tabled a white paper entitled “Towards Handling the Threat of the Islamic State.” The legal consequences of the white paper included the strengthening of existing counter-terrorism laws such as the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (2012) as well as the introduction of a new and draconic Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and the Special Measures Against Terrorism in Foreign Countries (2015).

POTA recreated the Internal Security Act (ISA) introduced by the former British colonial authorities during the Malayan Emergency (1948) and only recently amended by the government in 2012. Like the ISA, POTA allows for the indefinite detention of terror suspects without trial. Malaysia has faced terror before—not only during the Communist-inspired Malayan Emergency (1947-1959). In 2000, al-Maunah, a Perak-based Islamic mystical sect led by Mohamed Amin, seized a military post in Sauk in a somewhat quixotic attempt to bring down the government of Mahathir Mohammad (1981-2002). Malaysia also incubated the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia, which was similarly dedicated to the overthrow of the ruling United Malay National Organization that had ruled Malaysia uninterruptedly since independence in 1963.

However, as Malaysia’s Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi observed in 2015, unlike these local terror groups, “both aiming to overthrow the government through violence in the past, now militant groups are more linked to each other internationally.” [11] Since 2014, therefore, not only has the Islamic State’s Southeast Asian branch, Katibah Nusantara, established a Malaysian presence, but new, indigenous terror cells such as B.K.A.W., BAJ, DIMzia and ADI—known, it seems, only by their acronyms—have also emerged. [12] Operating in Selangor and Perak, they share the vision and mission of JI and IS to establish a regional “super” caliphate, the Daulah Islamiah Nusantara, that would include all the predominantly Muslim states in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Indonesia, southern Thailand, and the southern Philippines, as well as Singapore. [13] Abu Sayyaf, the southern Philippine-based Islamist group, which during the 1990s had links to both al Qaeda and JI, shares a similar vision and has enjoyed a new lease on life with the emergence of the Islamic State.

Evidently, Malaysia, which, despite the growth of a militant Islamist tendency, has not experienced a terror attack since 9/11, faces a grave threat. Given that Malaysia is a moderate majority-Muslim state that has enjoyed political stability and high levels of economic growth since emerging as an Asian “tiger” middle-income economy in the 1990s, what accounts for the appeal of the Islamic State? And how serious is the threat that transnational Salafism poses to the country? Ethnicity, Religion, and Single-Party Rule in Malaysia Apparently, Malaysia, like many modern Muslim and non-Muslim states, underestimated the sophisticated use of the internet by the Islamic State and the appeal of its call to establish a caliphate to alienated young Malays. However, upon close scrutiny, the combination of long-simmering and more recent problems that have led Malaysia to this point is quite clear. Indeed, Malaysia is a majority-Muslim, multiethnic polity, where societal consensus, based on an affirmative action pact favoring the poorer, rural Malay majority population, has progressively eroded, both in spite and because of the manner in which the system of governance has operated and the national economy has developed. [14] ...

beneath the surface of a stable, pluralistic, electoral democracy lies a system of “oligarchic despotism.” Thus, beneath the surface of a stable and pluralistic electoral democracy lies a system of “oligarchic despotism.” [15] Central to this system is the manner in which a political elite within the ruling party, UMNO, came to dominate it. Under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad’s long dominance of the party between 1981-2002, UMNO increasingly determined resource allocation and redistributed assets in the majority ethnically Malay state. “To lubricate and stimulate the economy,” Mahathir explained, required the party’s smart but rigid grip. [16] The evolving Malaysia Incorporated model co-opted Chinese conglomerates into UMNO business politics and entangled business with politics, whilst the expanding and ethnically Malay bureaucracy developed an institutional aversion to public scrutiny. After race riots in 1969, UMNO renegotiated the post-colonial, inter-racial contract to enhance ethnic Malay economic participation.

Under Mahathir’s guidance, The New Economic Policy (NEP), the first phase of which dates back to the Second Malaysia Plan (1971-1975), redistributed socio-economic goods toward the economically deprived majority Malay community. [17] The malleability of the constitution, and the money politics that became inseparable from the Malaysian electoral process, reinforced single-party rule. Since 1957, the constitution has been amended thirty four times. In all elections held between1969-2008, UMNO and its various coalition partners have secured the two-thirds majority in parliament necessary to amend it. The capacity to dominate the multiethnic Barisan Nasional coalition in the Malay interest remains central to UMNO’s past and present political thinking. As Mahathir observed in 1971, Malaysia’s internal politics were ‘racial politics’ and its evolving democracy an elite-guided one “to ensure that the mutually antagonistic races of Malaysia will not clash.” [18] To sustain this oligarchy, UMNO eroded judicial independence while increasing the authority of the party in general and the office of Prime Minister in particular. Mahathir was largely responsible for this evolution.

Political developments, particularly since 2008, however, have eroded the societal consensus, fragmented the political opposition to UMNO, and created an environment in which issues are increasingly being framed in religious, as opposed to ethnic or racial terms, particularly amongst an alienated, young Malay community. In other words, the manner in which the ruling party has been accustomed to wielding its authoritarian grip, and the way in which that grip has weakened, is central to understanding the current political crisis in Malaysia and the emergence of an activist political Islam with a militant, transnational tendency increasingly attracted to the use of violence in order to bring about Shariah rule. For nearly six decades, the ruling UMNO, in alliance with smaller ethnically-based Chinese and Indian parties, has overseen national development. Under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s long dominance of the party from 1981-2002, UMNO determined resource allocation and redistributed assets in ways that produced substantial gains for the minority Chinese and, to a lesser extent, Indian business interests.

Under Mahathir’s supervision, UMNO’s New Economic Policy altered the socio-economic balance of power to the benefit of the economically deprived majority Malay community and, through this “constructive protection,” created a modern, yet somewhat conflicted, “Malaysian” identity. It is this conflict between ethnicity, posed in racial terms of Malay dominance, and religion, posed in terms of Malay Islamic identity and non-Islamic minority Chinese and Indian communities, which UMNO has consistently obfuscated. UMNO’s repression of these plural identities is central to the growing appeal of an uncompromising interpretation of the Qur’an and the imposition of Shariah discipline across the Federation. This developing debate about religious and ethnic identity notwithstanding, UMNO’s modernization of Malaysia through the NEP transformed the resource-rich state from a commodity-based, agricultural economy of six million people into an urbanized manufacturing economy of 27 million with a per capita G.D.P. of $10,800 by 2015. [19] In the process, Mahathir’s Malaysia Incorporated model managed, after 1983, to bring the private and public sectors together.

The first intimation that all was not well with UMNO’s version of an authoritarian political consensus came with the financial crisis of 1997. The crisis caused a rift within the UMNO elite between Mahathir and his deputy, Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar called for Reformasi to democratize the Malaysian political process and undermine its “mute syndrome.” [20] The political crisis culminated in the six-year imprisonment of Anwar for “abuse of power.” It also saw the emergence, after Anwar’s release in 2004, of a functional opposition consisting of the latter’s new Keadilan (Justice) party, the Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP), and the Pan Islamic Party (PAS) in a Pakatan Rakyat (Community Pact). This unstable alliance came close to winning both the 2008 and 2013 general elections. The first intimation that all was not well with UMNO's version of an authoritarian political consensus came with the financial crisis of 1997.

Najib Razak, who became Prime Minister in 2009, sought to reenergize the vision of One Malaysia between 2009-2013 and set up a government company and sovereign wealth fund to support it. [21] The campaign set up benchmarks for growth and transparency in key economic areas. The One Malaysia Development Board employed British and American consultancies to promote the vision of “cool Najib.” In 2011, Najib Razak condemned Iran’s nuclear program, promoted the wasatiyyah (moderation) concept of Islam, and briefly reformed the colonial-era internal security act in order to cultivate support. The political scandals besetting Prime Minister Najib since the 2013 federal election, which the UMNO-dominated ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition only narrowly won, have further facilitated the fragmentation of Malay and Malaysian identity. It is this uncertainty that a more assertive political Islam, not only of a militant variety, has sought to exploit. Najib only won the 2013 election by employing the well-established practice of vote-buying.

The questionable electoral victory eroded UMNO’s legitimacy and exacerbated the communal tensions that UMNO’s Barisan Nasional was designed to heal. The erosion of the ruling coalition’s mandate arose from a ‘Chinese tsunami’ of votes cast for the opposition coalition. [22] In the aftermath of the 2013 election, UMNO played the racial card, promoting the Malay-first racial ideology of the populist Perkasa faction of the party and exploiting the ethnic and religious differences between the secular ideologies of the Chinese DAP and its coalition partner PAS’s commitment to the promotion of hudud (Shariah law) federally. Over the course of 2014, the Islamic opposition party fragmented, with one faction remaining loyal to the opposition coalition and the other calling for the rigid implementation of Shariah across the Federation. At the same time, Najib resumed the perennial persecution of Anwar. In February, the High Court found Anwar guilty of sodomy, a “crime” that incurred a further five-year sentence. Without Anwar’s presence, the opposition disintegrated. ... the current financial scandal ...

reflects the slow motion collision of the Malaysia Incorporated model and its networks of patronage and nepotism with the social media realities of the online world. However, revelations in the Wall Street Journal and the U.K.-based Sarawak Report that Prime Minister Najib Razak had secreted hundreds of millions of dollars from the state sovereign wealth fund One Malaysia Development Berhad into his personal offshore account, while the fund that Najib had inaugurated after becoming Prime Minister in 2009 accumulated losses of $11 billion. [23] Former Prime Minister Mahathir called upon Najib to resign. Yet, Najib is by no means alone in practicing this Malaysian version of creative accountancy. Indeed, Mahathir’s criticisms of current elite practice appears particularly surreal. In other words, the current financial scandal is not something new in governmental financial practice but reflects the slow motion collision of the Malaysia Incorporated model and its networks of patronage and nepotism with the social media realities of the online world.

It is in this context of the loss of moral and political legitimacy by the UMNO elite committed to ruling in the Malay ethnic interest and offering a moderate version of Islam that the appeal of a purified Islamic practice freed from the taint of money politics, together with the appeal of a more militant Salafism, must be situated. In this context of Islamic appeals for social and political justice, the draconian counter-terrorism laws risk backfiring. As Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division has observed, POTA has opened a “Pandora’s box for politically motivated abusive state actions.” [24] The Islamist demand for justice and accountability has, in fact, reinforced a political call for Shariah from both the Malay Islamic Party (PAS), which historically has dominated governments in the northern states of the Malaysian Federation, Kedah and Terengannu, and from the transnational Islamist movement Hizb ut Tahrir (HuT), which has, over the last decade, achieved a growing presence in the region and offers a more sophisticated message that appeals to the Malay middle classes in the academic, media, and public sectors of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

Nominally non-violent, Hizb ut Tahrir has very effectively promoted the ideal of a Daulah Islamiah Nusantara on campuses, on websites, and through its publications. In other words, it shares the end, if not the means, of Katiba Nusantara. Conclusion Given Malaysia’s importance as one of the world’s few successful Muslim states, it is noteworthy that the West and its media have adopted a complacent attitude toward recent Malaysian developments. The Commonwealth failed to send observers to the 2013 election. The West has, in other words, ignored the fact that UMNO’s post-modern version of Oriental despotism has become highly divisive. “Once UMNO loses,” Mahathir observed, “it cannot be rehabilitated.” [25] UMNO, however, is fragmenting, caught between the rock of reform and the hard place of its traditional, authoritarian racial politics. The rise of political and militant Islam, which is also ethnically coded in terms of Malay identity, is the outward and visible sign of the internal erosion of UMNO's authority.

[1] Amy Chew, “ISIS, Malaysia and the Risks of Lost Moral Authority,” The Diplomat, March 22, 2016. [2] See David Camroux, “State Responses to Islamic resurgence in Malaysia: Accommodation, Co-option and Confrontation,” Asian Survey 36,9 (1996): 855-860. [3] Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), chapter 5. [4] M. Tito Karnavian, Explaining Islamist Insurgencies (London: Imperial Press, 2015) 43. [5] Aliza Shah, “Malaysian Suicide Bomber Kills 13,” New Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur), January 31, 2016, accessed July 14, 2016, . [6] “More than 200 Indonesians and Malaysians Fighting for ISIS Arm Kalibah Nusantara,” The Straits Times, January 17, 2016, accessed July 14, 2016, .

[7] Prashanath Paramesawaran, “More ISIS Attacks Likely Amid Leadership Rivalry,” The Diplomat February 4, 2016. [8] Amy Chew, “ISIS Malaysia and the Risks of Lost Moral Authority,” The Diplomat, March 22, 2016. Feud With Najib Leaves Former Premier `Not Proud' of Malaysia - Bloomberg Bloomberg the Company & Its Products Bloomberg Anywhere Remote LoginBloomberg Anywhere Login Bloomberg Terminal Demo Request Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support Advertising Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world.

Customer Support Feud With Najib Leaves Former Premier `Not Proud' of Malaysia by Ex-leader Mahathir campaigning for months to oust PM Najib Mahathir sees opposition winning next election due by 2018 Mahathir Mohamad: At the Moment I'm Not Proud of Malaysia Former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad has lost pride in the country he governed for more than two decades, warning political tensions that have surrounded Prime Minister Najib Razak for months could hand a fractured opposition victory at the next election. In a wide-ranging interview, Mahathir, 90, renewed his months long calls for the premier to step aside, saying Malaysia under Najib’s seven-year tenure had morphed from a stable, calm country where the economy was growing to a place that lacked tolerance. "There was a time when I go abroad, people talk highly of Malaysia," Mahathir said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 25. "Today, if we go abroad, we meet people, what they say is that ‘hey, what’s happening to your country?’ That’s what they say.

And I am not proud because I can’t explain what’s happening in the country." The feud between Mahathir and Najib has grown increasingly acrimonious in recent months , with Mahathir attacking Najib over a series of financial scandals and his economic record, and quitting the ruling party. Mahathir is under investigation for potential defamation and had another visit from police last week. While his influence has faded in recent years, the public sparring creates risk for the United Malays National Organisation, which has ruled since independence in 1957 but whose broader Barisan Nasional coalition won the last election in 2013 with its slimmest margin yet. Their dispute reflects a broader concern about a sense of drift in Malaysia: While an investigation into $681 million that authorities said was a personal donation in 2013 from the Saudi Arabian royal family to Najib has largely wrapped up, several probes continue into the finances of debt-ridden state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd., whose advisory board Najib chairs. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that hundreds of millions of dollars also went into Najib’s accounts in 2011 and 2012.

A 1MDB spokesman said the company has consistently maintained it hadn’t paid any funds to the personal accounts of the prime minister. Mahathir Mohamad: People Don't Want to Invest in Malaysia Weakened Opposition The various affairs have raised fresh questions over transparency and doing business in Malaysia, dented markets and helped spur a 21 percent slump in approved investment last year, all at a time economic growth is slowing. The most important business stories of the day. Get Bloomberg's daily newsletter. The latest political news, analysis, charts, and dispatches from Washington. You will now receive the Politics newsletter Markets The most important market news of the day. So you can sleep an extra five minutes. You will now receive the Markets newsletter Technology Insights into what you'll be paying for, downloading and plugging in tomorrow and 10 years from now. You will now receive the Technology newsletter Pursuits What to eat, drink, wear and drive – in real life and your dreams. You will now receive the Pursuits newsletter Game Plan The school, work and life hacks you need to get ahead.

You will now receive the Game Plan newsletter Najib has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying he and Mahathir disagreed over economic policies and that no “individual, however eminent” should try to interfere with or hijack his leadership. He retains the backing of the bulk of UMNO’s powerful divisional chiefs and the opposition remains weak, its coalition having imploded after then-leader Anwar Ibrahim -- a one-time deputy to Mahathir --was sent to jail again last year on a sodomy conviction, a charge he denies. Make up of Malaysia’s Parliament Still, Mahathir said voters are worried enough to switch support from UMNO, while state institutions including the police and the Attorney-General’s Office are being undermined by Najib’s actions after the revelation of the money in his accounts. Najib shouldn’t have accepted the funds as no leader "should have that kind of money," he said. “When we talk to people, they are disgusted with the government,” Mahathir said. “On my blog, they say the same thing.

They all feel this is a bad government where it doesn’t do anything that is good for the country, that it undermines the system.” Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali in January closed the door on the graft investigation into Najib, clearing him of wrongdoing. The premier returned $620 million in August 2013 that was not utilized, Apandi said. He did not specify what the rest of the funds were used for. "Any prime minister who has $681 million with him is not doing something right," Mahathir said from his office on the 86th floor of the world’s tallest twin towers. "Even if it is given to him by a foreigner, you still don’t accept." Mahathir led Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, a period when the economy grew an average 6.3 percent annually. He was famous for rejecting an International Monetary Fund bailout for Malaysia during the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, instead introducing capital controls and pegging the ringgit. He advocated a moderate brand of Islam and stressed modernization but had little tolerance for dissent and used sedition laws to curb it. He was a vocal critic of U.S.

policy in the Middle East and its invasion of Iraq while he was in power. Najib’s predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi stepped down in 2009 as his popularity within UMNO faded, fueled in part by resignation calls from Mahathir. Sidelining Detractors "During my time, we had problems of course, political problems," Mahathir said. "But now what we are seeing is that, if anybody says anything against Najib, that is almost a crime." Najib is sidelining detractors as he cements his grip on UMNO: the Supreme Council suspended party Deputy President Muhyiddin Yassin on Friday for undermining UMNO in his quest to remove the premier from office, weeks after Najib’s allies maneuvered the ouster of Mahathir’s son -- another critic -- as chief minister of a northern state. Mahathir said there is little way to tell how much public support he has. Divisional chiefs are "keeping quiet because they have to support the prime minister.” At the general level, "lots of people come up to me and say ‘we support you’ but that’s what they say. But they are also scared to be heard saying they support me." Muhyiddin Yassin.

Photographer: Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images Living Costs Mahathir said voters were angry over rising costs from transportation to food as the government removes subsidies and after the implementation of a goods and services tax last year. "The cost of living has gone up because of GST," said Mahathir. "Toll rates have gone up, the minimum wage has gone up, which means the cost of doing business, the cost of production has gone up.” Najib has moved since 2013 to shore up his main support among rural-based Malays, giving bigger cash handouts to lower-income households to help them cope with rising costs. Mahathir disagrees with the cash handouts program. “I attribute many of the problems faced today to Dato Seri Najib and his policies,” Mahathir said. The negative perception surrounding Najib will cost UMNO votes even with a splintered opposition, he said, while declining to name anyone he thought could replace Najib. The next election is due by 2018. "If you don’t support Barisan Nasional, obviously the opposition will win by default,” he said.

“Even if the opposition is in disarray." “This animosity toward Najib is such, their dislike for the policies that he has, if he is removed, I think the country will be able to recover,” Mahathir said. “The country is resilient because of the quality of the people who built up this country, it’s not because of Najib.” Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Nachspiel at Polemarchus' Nachspiel at Polemarchus' Posted by Sverre in : Malaysia , World politics , add a comment The Malaysian ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) seems to have managed to remain in power after today’s general elections, having at least passed the mark of the 112 necessary seats necessary to retain their parliamentary majority, reports Al Jazeera . The Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times reports the number to be 133 at the time of writing this, with 6 seats left to be decided. I haven’t seen the aggregate voting numbers yet, but I expect PR may very well have gained a vote majority, despite not having captured the sufficient number of parliament seats.

This because they are strong in the population dense urban areas where more votes are necessary to gain a seat in the single seat first-past-the-post voting system. Prime minister Najib Tun Razak has made statements that he wishes to embark on a “ national reconciliation process ” to work against extremism towards a more moderate environment in the wake of the election. What this means, remains to be seen. BN has a rather dubious history when it comes to “measures” for national unity, traditionally not having been shy to employ authoritarian measures to quell opposition. Whether this will be the result also this time remains to be seen. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim fuelled public suspicions beforehand by claiming that only fraud could keep the opposition from winning the election. Social media are currently abuzz with various claims of fraud. The government is accused of everything from direct ballot stuffing to flying in foreigners and issuing last minute citizenship credentials to win closely contested rural districts. On Facebook a “blackout campaign” replacing profile images with a black square has been started, pointing to the “miraculous blackouts” allegedly ensuring BN’s victory.

The opposition leader himself has made claims about multiple occurrences of “phantom voters” through his official Twitter account @anwaribrahim , and appears not to accept the result. While the government coalition seems to have won this round, halting the progress of the opposition movement, whether legitimately or not, they do not seem to have managed to improve their position in parliament, losing a few seats to the opposition compared to the last general election in 2008. Posted by Sverre in : Malaysia , World politics , add a comment Yes, I know. Malaysia isn’t an Arabic country, and the current Malaysian regime is far from the former regimes of Libya and Egypt. Nevertheless, today’s general election in this Muslim majority South-East Asian country could possibly be a pivotal point with several similarities to the Arab Spring, and with a peaceful transfer of power, could possibly make it a beacon for the fledgling regimes further west. When Malaysia gained independence from Great Britain in 1957, one of the conditions for the transfer of power was that power had to be shared between the major ethnic groups: The Malays, the Chinese and the Indians.

The Party Perikatan (Alliance Party), later to become the Barisan Nasional (National Alliance), was the response – a coalition of the main political organization of each of the three groups, namely United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC). This nationalist conservative alliance, led by the UMNO has ruled the country since, with fifty years of consecutive two-third majorities in parliament until 2008, when the newly formed Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition alliance under the leadership of former UMNO deputy head Anwar Ibrahim seized almost half the votes (but far less than half the seats due to a first-past-the-post electoral system). The maximum term length for the Malaysian parliament is 5 years, so the Prime Minister finally had to dissolve parliament and call for new general elections now. To name an election “historic” is an abused trope, but in this case it has all the makings for becoming a pivotal moment in Malaysian history. Either as the election where BN lost its marjority for the first time, the election where PR lost its momentum and failed to gain the majority, or something else entirely.

(more…) Posted by Sverre in : Political economy , add a comment Through the Twitter account of Gudmund Hernes, I became aware of a very interesting and thought provoking piece by Alexander Stille , based on the work of French economist Thomas Piketty. Titled “The heirs of inequality”, it highlights the connection between periods of slow growth and much economic inequality. Looking at the French economy from 1820 until today, and Scandinavian and American economies today, there appears to be a clear correlation. The causality is less clear. Does slow growth make for worse income distribution, does a poor income distribution slow growth, or are both effects reinforcing each other? Posted by Sverre in : Human rights , Political behavior , add a comment Norwegian newspapers today report the following: A month after the terror at Oslo and Utøya, a group of researchers from the University of Bergen repeated three of the survey questions they asked Norwegians as part of the International Social Survey Programme , right after the terror in Madrid in 2006. They were amazed at what they found. Norwegians are more sceptical, not less, towards extending police powers of surveillance.

They asked the following questions (english translations from ISSP documentation): Suppose the government suspected that a terrorist act was about to happen. Do you think the authorities should have the right to Detain people for as long as they want without putting them on trial? 2006: 53 % yes – 2011: 50 % yes Tap people’s telephone conversations? 2006: 85 % yes – 2011: 67 % yes Stop and search people in the street at random? 2006: 58 % yes – 2011: 44 % yes This constitutes a clear drop in support for security measures that invade privacy and civil liberties, quite the opposite of what we would expect. (more…) Posted by Sverre in : Human rights , World politics , 2comments So, Osama bin Laden is dead. The most hated man in the western hemisphere has been brought down. Justice is served. Or is it? If we take a step back from the thrill of the moment and examine the facts, what has really happened here? United States’ agents have localized and killed a foreign national on foreign soil, then recovered his body.

This man is accused of committing serious crimes against humanity, but no attempt was made to capture him alive and put him on trial. The president of the United States has acted as both prosecutor, judge and jury with the US Navy Seals as executioners. Despite this, President Obama freely owns up to his achievement, without even an attempt at explanation as to why the killing was necessary. Official word from the US Government is also that the Posted by Sverre in : Methods in political science , My master thesis , Political Theory , add a comment After a long and arduous process, the work on my master’s thesis is finally nearing the end. Here is a slightly adapted version of the introduction, and a link to the print ready version (PDF). Some of the inspiration for my thesis comes from an article in the student newspaper in Trondheim , Under Dusken, and similar comments over the following years. Political science professor Anders Todal Jenssen insisted that the student democracy in Trondheim lacked legitimacy because of the low voter turnout and that the introduction of political parties would be the solution to this problem. Binding platforms would make student politicians accountable to the voters and increase support for democracy. As a student representative myself at the time, I was provoked.

We were proud of the lack of polarization within the student democracy and, although I didn’t know the term at the time, the level of deliberation. This started me on the quest for an alternative to Professor Todal Jenssen’s strong belief in the salience of political parties. Democracy does of course seem unthinkable without political parties. Almost every democracy is dominated by a system of organized factions that structure, educate and drive the political process forwards. The necessity for such a system is no longer seriously questioned in political science. I do not believe, however, that any institution should be beyond question. Even if we have no intention to get rid of political parties, we should strive to understand the effect they have on democracy. As I will show in this thesis, one such effect may be reducing open and free deliberation among decision-makers. This may be a cost we are willing to pay, but not a cost we should pay without knowing its size.

(more…) Posted by Sverre in : Malaysia , add a comment The Wall street Journal today published a joint editorial by Al Gore and Paul Wolfowitz ((Hidden behind paywall at WSJ, so I’m linking to Lim Kit Siang’s publication of the entire piece)) regarding the trial against Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. This trial is the latest in a series of various legal actions most likely politically motivated and engineered by the Malaysian establishment to keep him out of Malaysian politics. Gore and Wolfowitz, pretty far apart in domestic politics have come together in their condemnation and call for action by the American government. They also display some insight into matters in Malaysia and Anwar Ibrahim. Matters in Malaysia are by no means entirely black and white, but the heart of the matter is that abuse of judicial power to undermine democracy is wrong no matter what. (more…) Posted by Sverre in : Political economy , Political Science in Popculture , add a comment Were the Jedi knights enemies of liberty? The political philosophy of the Jedi is explored by both Reason‘s Jesse Kline and Dan Drezner of Foreign Policy in recent blog posts. Kline claims that the main goal of the Jedi was to enforce the big government agenda of the Galactic Republic.

Drezner refutes that we actually know too little of the agenda of the republic at all. What we do know, however, is that Palpatine tried to set up a totalitarian state that would surely be anti-liberal and big government. The Trade Federation - evil trade monopolists Drezner claims that we have little information on the pre-Phantom Menace policies of Supreme Chancellor Vallorum, leader of the Galactic Republic. We do however know that the monopolistic and militaristic Trade Federation appears to be at least partially sanctioned by the Republic, as they have their own representatives in the Senate. Vallorum does however appear somewhat opposed to their blocade of trade to Naboo, as he at the beginning of The Phantom Menace dispatches the Jedi to negotiate. Posted by Sverre in : Malaysia , 4comments I haven’t blogged much the past couple of months. It’s partly because of a busy schedule and partly because of a severe case of writer’s block. A holiday to my old stomping grounds in Malaysia and Pulau Langkawi where I once attended sekolah menengah (Malaysian high school) has inspired new interest in writing about the country.

Malaysia has a parliament and elections, but it is nowehere near being a working democracy. This week they have once again proven this with the censorship of MP and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim . Anwar now faces possible suspension from parliament over a comment made during one of its sessions. He claimed that the nationalist campaign 1Malaysia, intended to boost national unity, is somehow related to Ehud Barak’s 1999 political campaign One Israel . The relation is the PR firm APCO that allegedly has been working for the government coalition Barisan Nasional. (more…) Posted by Sverre in : Human rights , 1 comment so far The Norwegian weekly newspaper Morgenbladet brings a thought-provoking piece this week by professor Hans Petter Graver , dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. In a recent book by novelist Kjartan Fløgstad, the way the law profession went into the service of Nazi Germany is put in a very bad light.

Professor Graver, far from leaping to the defense of his profession actually defends the depiction by Fløgstad, even giving it current relevance by drawing parallels between the reinterpretation of German law to accomodate Nazism and the reinterpretation of American law under Bush to legitimize coercive interrogation techniques such as “waterboarding” or even hitting a detainee in the face or stomach. He points to a dangerous tendency within his own profession not to take a moral stand, insist there are two sides to every issue and be servile to government. This may be done under the guise of a neutrality necessary for preserving the rule of law even under bad regimes, but it requires ignoring the original intent of the law, ripping the very foundation out from under the system in the process. There are good examples of the law profession participating in the defense against external enemies, but in defending the rule of law against perversion by internal enemies, the historical record is not very good. Malaysian youth pivotal in 'social media' election - World - DAWN.COM Malaysian youth pivotal in 'social media' election Print Khairy Jamaluddin, Malaysian MP for Rembau and the head of UMNO Youth.

—Photo (File) AFP KUALA LUMPUR: Bukhairy Sofian is fed up with a ban on political activity at Malaysian universities, which he calls an outdated shackle on a tech-savvy younger generation yearning to express themselves. So the 23-year-old, who heads a student group advocating academic freedom, plans to support the upstart opposition in May 5 elections expected to be the country's closest yet. “Today, youngsters can find out everything through their handphones. The youth have opened their eyes (to see) that they can change Malaysia for the better,” the political science student said. His vote is one small victory for the opposition in a battle to win over youths who are exposed as never before to alternative political views online and tipped as potential kingmakers in the election. Malaysian youths have a history of political apathy blamed on the country's relative prosperity, Asian respect for authority and the campus politics ban imposed in the 1970s to squelch radicalism.

But more than five million of the 13.3 million registered voters are under the age of 40 - up 31 per cent from previous 2008 polls - and over two million are first-time voters. “The Malay youth vote is critical,” said Ibrahim Suffian, head of polling group Merdeka Centre, referring to the Muslim Malays who make up about 55 per cent of multi-ethnic Malaysia's people. He said high youth turnout could “dilute” support for the Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition, which has ruled with a tight grip since independence in 1957 but faces a strong opposition vowing to end authoritarianism and graft. The Internet is the battleground in what premier Najib Razak in February called Malaysia's “first social media election”. Malaysian Facebook users have surged from 800,000 during the 2008 polls to 13 million, or nearly half the country's population of 28 million. They have among the world's most extensive “friend” networks and also are prolific Twitter users.

A host of independent news sites also have emerged in recent years as political agenda-setters, with biting reports on alleged Barisan corruption and other abuses. “The Internet is playing a central role in spreading information and sparking debates,” said Ooi Kee Beng of Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. “The young started thinking: This is our country. We can't just leave it to the old guard. Maybe we know better.” Denied access to government-controlled traditional media, the three-party opposition learned long ago to get its message out online in a country where smartphones are essential accoutrements. Campaigning heavily on the Web, it seized a third of parliament in 2008, tripling its share in its best showing ever, with prominent bloggers winning seats. “We lost the social media war. We were almost not there (in 2008),” said deputy higher education minister Saifuddin Abdullah, a leading Barisan reform voice. Since then, the opposition has ramped up its online presence, catering to the growing Internet news media and recently launching live streaming of press briefings and political rallies and a smartphone app to track campaign events.

It has also has reached out to youths who surveys show are increasingly upset with the quality and cost of education, and with job prospects. It pledges to liberalise campuses, forgive some student debt and implement free primary-to-university education. Scrambling to catch up, Najib, 59, who took office in 2009, is active on a Twitter account followed by more than a million users and has two Facebook pages and a blog. Najib lifted a decades-old ban on university students joining political parties last year, though political activity on campuses remains outlawed. He also is dangling student loan discounts and other youth handouts and has worked to project a young image, inviting fans to watch televised football matches together and appearing at recent pop concerts. Meanwhile, legions of cybertroopers attack the opposition online. Khairy Jamaluddin, leader of Barisan's youth wing, said his organisation alone has 6,000 volunteers working to get the Barisan message out online. “We can do a political talk and speak to maybe 1,000 or 2,000 people, but we post it on Facebook and within an hour 20,000 people have seen it,” Khairy said.

Grainy videos and photos also have emerged online claiming to show Anwar Ibrahim and other opposition leaders in sex acts, which they have called fakes aimed at smearing them. Barisan officials deny involvement. | Politics , Asia Pacific , Malaysia , United Kingdom Opposition leader Anwar is hoping the ruling coalition can be removed from power for the first time since 1957 [AFP] The integrity of Malaysia's elections is in doubt because indelible ink meant to prevent fraud is easily washed off, according to the opposition and clean-polls activists. The country's Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition government bowed to pressure from mass rallies for fair polls and introduced the ink in the run-up to Sunday's general elections. Reports have mounted that security personnel who took part in early voting had easily been able to clean off the ink, applied to a person's finger to show they had voted and which was supposed to remain visible for at least a week. About 13.3 million Malaysians are eligible to cast ballots to fill 222 parliamentary seats and elect legislators for 12 state legislatures. Lim Kit Siang, a veteran opposition politician, said on Wednesday that the Election Commission should immediately address the problem.

"Otherwise it will be a black mark on the commission and undermine the public confidence in the results," Lim said. "The whole integrity of the electoral process has come into question." However, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, the election committee chairman, insisted that the ink could not be washed off. Even if the stain on the fingernail could be rubbed off, the stain would stay visible on the skin surrounding the nail for seven days, he told the Malaysian Insider newspaper. Narrow poll Barisan has ruled since independence from Britain in 1957, and Sunday's vote will be the first in history in which the opposition has a chance of winning power . It will pit Prime Minister Najib Razak 's Barisan coalition against Anwar Ibrahim 's Pakatan Rayat (People's Alliance), which has pledged to tackle what it considers deep-rooted problems like corruption and racial discrimination. Najib has repeatedly voiced confidence that his coalition would win and potentially regain a two-thirds parliamentary majority that it lost in 2008.

Live Box 201343012638556217 Barisan's grip on power has weakened in recent years amid complaints about a lack of government transparency and racial discrimination. Anwar told the Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that his alliance believed it could secure a comfortable majority, partly because of rising support among younger voters with an appetite for political change. "People have enough of this semi-authoritarian rule, of complete control of the media, of strong arrogance, of power and endemic corruption," Anwar said in reference to the current government's control. He also reiterated the opposition's concerns that Barisan would resort to electoral fraud to retain power. The government has denied accusations that it planned to tamper with votes. It has sought to bolster its popularity in recent months by providing cash handouts to low-income households and offering other financial incentives. Anwar, a former deputy prime minister who was fired in 1998 and jailed on sodomy and corruption charges that he said were fabricated by his political enemies, told Reuters he would step down if his three-party alliance fails to wrest power from Barisan.

Source: Agencies | Politics , Asia Pacific , Malaysia Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has dissolved parliament ahead of a general election. Najib, whose National Front (BN) coalition has been in power for 56 years, made the announcement in a televised address on Wednesday. "The king has accepted my request to dissolve parliament effective April 3," he said from the administrative capital Putrajaya, adding he hoped his coalition would win a "solid majority". Najib will face opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in what is expected to be a tightly-contested race. The election is expected to be held on April 27 following a two-week campaign period. 'Resort to fraud' Najib's National Front coalition lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time in 2008 elections and faces a three-party opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat (People's Pact) led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. Analysts predict the election will be the closest ever amid concerns over corruption, the rising cost of living and crime under the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957.

Anwar Ibrahim speaks to Al Jazeera The 13-member coalition is dominated by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which is led by Najib, who has rebranded it by launching a series of reforms aimed at boosting the economy and granting greater civil liberties. The opposition made unprecedented inroads in the last polls in 2008. It currently holds 75 of 222 parliamentary seats and controls four of the country's 13 states. "For Pakatan Rakyat it is the best possible chance to offer a viable alternative for democracy and a more responsible government. I think the chances of winning are very good amid signs of desperation in the leadership of Najib," Anwar told AFP news agency. "My major concern is they may resort to fraud during the polls and violence in the run-up to the elections," he added. Activists and the opposition have demanded free and fair elections, staging several mass rallies calling for change, including a clean-up of the electoral roll which they say is marred with irregularities. In response, Najib's government has taken steps including the introduction of indelible ink to prevent multiple-voting and allowing Malaysians abroad to vote by post.

Election 'gamble' But the opposition says these moves fall short of creating a level electoral playing field. In his announcement of the dissolution of parliament, Najib urged political parties to observe the rule of law and promised a smooth transition of power if the opposition wins. Malaysia opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim leads a coalition of three opposition parties [AFP] "If there is change in power, it will and must happen peacefully. This is our commitment," he said. He appealed to the electorate not to "gamble" away their votes by choosing the opposition. Part of the reason the ruling party has stayed in power is due to decades of economic growth. Malaysia, Southeast Asia's third biggest economy, grew a better-than-expected 5.6 percent last year spurred by consumer spending supported by pre-election direct cash handouts and other incentives. But criticism of its authoritarian rule has gained traction and the opposition is promising a new era of political liberalisation and an end to entrenched corruption. It dismisses Najib's reforms as window-dressing, and is pledging to stamp out graft and channel money now allegedly given to government cronies towards free education, cutting taxes and increasing subsidies.

It is also vowing to address complaints of discrimination against minority ethnic Chinese and Indians, who account for about a third of the population. Source: Al Jazeera And Agencies Related Xenophon caught in Malaysia's election battleground - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Xenophon caught in Malaysia's election battleground Senator Nick Xenophon's eviction from Malaysia says a lot about free speech and censorship but - argues Catherine McGrath - with an election to be called within weeks, it also points to the fierce political battle to come. Just like Senator Nick Xenophon, I know a thing or two about free speech in Malaysia. In 1996, while covering a conference on East Timor in Kuala Lumpur for the ABC, I was arrested by Malaysian police. The Senator's detention at the airport last week has brought back many memories. He was prevented from entering Malaysia where he planned to speak to democracy campaigners. I was held at a local police station for two days and faced charges of unlawful assembly, before the charges were dropped. All this because I tried to cover a conference the Malaysian Government didn't want held or promoted. That was almost 17 years ago now. It might seem that not much has changed in Malaysia but there's more to it than that.

Malaysia is getting richer, modernising and becoming more open. Yes, freedom of speech is still limited and seen by the Government as threatening - as the Xenophon experience proves - and yet on another level there are great changes going on in society. These days there is a strong opposition - led by Anwar Ibrahim who, back when I was covering Malaysian politics, was deputy to the country’s all powerful prime minister – Dr Mahathir Mohamad. There is also a strong civil society and a pro-democracy movement called Bersih – meaning 'clean' in Malay. The record-breaking 2008 elections brought the Opposition great success and even though the Government tried to humiliate Anwar Ibrahim with court cases and sodomy charges the Opposition is reasonably united and finding traction . Bersih – a coalition of non-governmental organisations that promotes clean and fair elections – is headed by Malaysia's former Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan. It was Bersih that invited Nick Xenophon to visit the country. Xenophon has said "it is clear" that his deportation from Malaysia had everything to do with his support for Bersih and it's clean election message.

Yet look deeper and it is in fact clear that the reason Xenophon's visit received the reaction it did from Malaysia's government has most to do with the current temperature of national politics. Malaysia is in the midst of a momentous political struggle. With an election due to be called any week now, the resulting election could be the closest in years. Suddenly the United Malays National Party or UNMO - which has led the Barisan National Coalition that has ruled Malaysia since 1957 - is feeling unprecedented electoral pressure. Nick Xenophon's visit – with its implication of support for Bersih – occurred in the middle of this tense political mix. The Malaysian government knows Nick Xenophon of course. He is a vocal critic of the country's electoral system. In 2011 when the Bersih movement's yellow shirts were banned Xenophon as well as Labor's Michael Danby donned the shirts in Canberra as a show of support for Bersih advocates in Malaysia. Senator Xenophon told me at the time in an interview for Australia Network News: "It is about having clean elections and the fact that this t-shirt is banned when what it is saying is that there should be free and clean and fair elections is just extraordinary".

Since then he has hosted Bersih's leader, Ambiga Sreenevasan, in Canberra and visited Malaysia in 2012 as part of a fact-finding tour. In the Senate in November last year Xenophon spoke about his concerns for democracy that had emerged after his visit to Malaysia the week before. The visit raised questions about electoral fraud, gerrymanders and vote rigging. The 2013 Malaysian election will be fascinating to watch and crucial for Malaysians. Will Anwar Ibrahim's Opposition convert its growing electoral following into votes that could threaten UNMO's hold on power? Anwar and the Bersih campaign have been successful in spreading their message internationally but no one knows what that will mean come voting day. Chances are UNMO will survive with reduced support but neither locals nor analysts know for sure. UNMO remains powerful but Malaysia is evolving. It is becoming more democratic and Opposition voices are being heard. The internet has freed up political discourse and Bersih street demonstrations have attracted local attention. Local media remains tightly controlled. When Nick Xenophon arrived back in Australia he said he was deported because of his support for the pro-democracy movement in Malaysia.

"While it was a long an unpleasant day for me, Malaysians face many long and unpleasant years if they don't get clean and fair elections". Of course the Malaysian Government doesn't like that sort of talk. Of course they see him as interfering in Malaysia's internal politics. Of course they didn't want him in the country when it might mean more publicity for Anwar Ibrahim or the Bersih group. Back in 1996 when I was arrested as a reporter, Malaysia looked very different. Civil society groups had not formed a cohesive voice and Opposition parties were having next to no impact. The UNMO led Government was under no pressure. At some point it was to be expected that the Government of Malaysia would say 'enough already… go home' to Nick Xenophon because it sees him as a meddling foreigner. That doesn’t make it right – but it also doesn’t make it surprising. Ironically Nick Xenophon’s arrest has given the issue more publicity than ever. Catherine McGrath is political editor of the Australia Network. In 1996 she was the ABC's South East Asian correspondent based in Singapore. Read her full profile here .

Question: The Barisan National party has ruled which country since 1957, winning every election since then, winning its last election in 2013?
Answer: Malaysia