Late Malaysian politics : from single party dominance to multi party mayhem

• Main Author: Case, William
• Other Authors: -
• Format: Working Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Social sciences::Political science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152649
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Why has Malaysia's politics, long counted among the most stable in East Asia, suddenly lost durability? Explanation starts with a single-party dominant system, reinforced by a hybrid political regime and grounded in a divided and ranked social structure. In this configuration, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) operated as the single dominant party. And insulated by the hybrid regime and supported by ethnic constituencies, UMNO won ten consecutive general elections between 1974 and 2014. But for reasons explored in this analysis, UMNO gradually lost elite cohesion and constituent support. leading to its momentous electoral defeat in 2018 . This fragmented the single-party dominant system and its hybrid regime scaffolding. Accordingly, Malaysia's politics has been cast from single-party dominance into multi-party mayhem, with scant chances for re-equilibration any time soon.