Enough time has passed, and enough key events have taken place for the contours of the administration of Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to be apparent. While it has flirted openly with reforms, and has used phrases otherwise used by the opposition, its sincerity - and its capability - is still in doubt. More than that, it is not as yet clear how convinced the government actually is about of the need for institutional reforms, especially when the institutions in need of reform include the police, the anti-corruption agency, the judiciary and the dominant party, UMNO. With a new coalition opposing him in parliament, Najib comes to power wedged between his own coalition's aged traditions and the restive spirit of the times. Whether he can squeeze his way into a comfortable spot and stay in power is the question the coming years will answer.
Enough time has passed, and enough key events have taken place for the contours of the administration of Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to be apparent. While it has flirted openly with reforms, and has used phrases otherwise used by the opposition, its sincerity - and its capability - is still in doubt. More that that, it is not as yet clear how convinced the government actually is about of the need for institutional reforms, especially when the institutions in need of reform include the police, the anti-corruption agency, the judiciary and the dominant party, UMNO. With a new coalition opposing him in parliament, Najib comes to power wedged between his own coalition's aged traditions and the restive spirit of the times. Whether he can squeeze his way into a comfortable spot and stay in power is the question the coming years will answer.
What is the future of Malaysia’s former dominant party, the United Malays National Organisation or UMNO? With the loss of government in the May 2018 General Election (GE14) after 61 years in government, the party faces a different, more uncertain future. It is grappling with its new role in the national political opposition and continued questions about the leadership of former prime minister Najib Tun Razak. This collection is an expanded edition of the original 2016, The End of UMNO? It includes the original five essays (including the foreword by current Foreign Minister in the Pakatan Harapan government and former UMNO Supreme Council member Saifuddin Abdullah), as well as new post-GE14 epilogue essays by each of the contributors – John Funston, Clive Kessler, James Chin and Bridget Welsh, all prominent and established scholars studying Malaysian politics. It also includes a new foreword by veteran UMNO leader, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who contested for the party presidency in the June 2018 party elections. The contributors in this collection study developments in Malaysia’s dominant party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and discuss the question of whether UMNO is in fact at an end. The answers to its future lie in part with a better understanding of its past and present. The authors draw attention to issues of party identity, leadership, membership, governance, institutional change, party financing, internal divisions and its relations with different communities and the public at large. The new and expanded edition draws attention to the factors that contributed to UMNO’s loss of government in GE14 and potential steps ahead. Not only does this book fill an important gap in the scholarly research on UMNO, this book offers different perspectives on the party’s contemporary challenges. This book aims to contribute to understanding, broaden public debate and stimulate further research on arguably one of Malaysia’s most important political institutions.
Malaysia pulled itself back from the brink on 9 May 2018. That day the majority of its voting population decided to topple the Barisan Nasional government that had been in power for over 60 years and that had come to be seen as corrupt beyond redemption, and incompetent to boot. Lined up against the unpopular administration of Najib Razak was a coalition led by former strongman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who at the age of 92 had decided to return to Malaysian politics to stop the rot which many believed had begun during his earlier period in power, in 1981-2003. As the oldest prime minister in world history, he is now setting about creating structure that he believes will lead to a Malaysia that will achieve the Vision 2020 that he first propounded in 1991. This vision dovetails with the ideals of the highly influential Reformasi Movement which was ignited by the sacking of his deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, in 1998. This compilation of insightful analyses is Ooi Kee Beng’s seventh, and discusses key events from the last five years leading up to 9 May 2018 and beyond. These seven books together cover the strange period we may come to know as the Inter-Mahathir Era, and the present volume discusses some of the challenges facing the new government, and the Malaysian population in general, now that the Barisan Nasional has imploded.
The idea of the ‘nation’ is a Western concept which has been applied to Southeast Asia. It is a project which has been in progress since the last century but is still incomplete. Various theoretical frameworks which are associated with nation and nation-building in the Southeast Asian region have been briefly dealt with. The book aims to examine the making of the nations in Southeast Asia using both historical and political science approaches. Concepts related to nation such as ethnicity, state, indigenism and citizenship have also been analysed in the Southeast Asian context. Specific examples of nation-building in five major Southeast Asian countries are presented. Problems and prospects of Southeast Asia's nation-building and citizenship building in the era of globalisation are also discussed.
As countries across Asia continue to rise and become more assertive global powers, the role that Higher Education has played, and continues to play, in this process is an issue of growing pertinence. Furthermore, understanding the relationship between Europe and Asia fostered by historical and contemporary knowledge transfer, including Higher Education, is crucial to analysing and encouraging the progress of both regional integration and inter-regional cooperation. With a specific focus on international Higher Education, European Studies in Asia investigates knowledge transfer and channels of learning between Europe and Asia from historical, contemporary and teaching perspectives. The book examines a selection of significant historical precedents of intellectual dialogue between the two regions and, in turn, explores contemporary cross-regional discourses both inside and outside of the official frameworks of the European Union (EU) and the Asia--Europe Meetings (ASEM). Drawing on extensive case studies based on many of his own teaching experiences, Georg Wiessala addresses key questions, such as the nature and construction of the European Studies in Asia curriculum; aspects of ‘values’, co-constructed learning and adult pedagogy in the discipline of European Studies in Asia; the politics of Asian host cultures, the ‘internationalization’ of Asian Higher Education and the experiences and expectations of tertiary sector students of this subject in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. In doing so, the author articulates a range of outcomes for the further development of Higher Education cooperation agendas between Asia and Europe, in the discipline of European Studies, and in related fields such as International Relations. This case study-led book makes an original and novel contribution to our understanding of European Studies in Asia. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Asian Education, Comparative Education, European Studies and International Relations.
This book is the first monograph to provide an in-depth and multifaceted study of the processes of ethnicization and identity construction in Malaysia, from the colonial period until the present. In his analysis, the author takes multiple layers of ethnicization into account and shows how these have shaped Malaysia’s socio-political system and society in different ways. Moving beyond a center-focused, top-down-oriented perception of identity politics, this work highlights on the one hand the role and position of a multitude of actors - from grassroots level to mainstream politics - who contribute to the persistence of ethnicization in Malaysia in numerous ways. On the other hand, it also shows where and under which circumstances possibilities for transethnic cooperation arise. A multi-disciplinary approach, substantiated by empirical data based on qualitative and quantitative methodologies, provides a perspective that moves beyond stereotypical narrations of Malaysia as being constituted by mainly three separate, homogenous groups. At the same time, this book gives a detailed and comprehensive account of political and historical developments and constitutes a rich resource for any Malaysia-related research. While the focus of this publication lies on Malaysia, the concept of manifestations and implementations of ethnicization provides an analytical framework that can also be applied in the study of ethnicization and identity construction elsewhere in the region and beyond.
Over the past two decades, ISEAS has compiled abridged articles that analyse key aspects of Southeast Asia's development and the ASEAN process. The ASEAN Reader was published in 1992 just as the Cold War ended, while The Second ASEAN Reader came in 2003 in the wake of the 1997 Asian crisis and the September 11 attacks in 2001. The past decade has not been spared its share of intense changes, with the rise of China and India bringing new challenges to the region's power equation, and the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis. Despite this, the momentum towards an integrated ASEAN community has been maintained. The articles in The Third ASEAN Reader study the trends and events of recent years, and discuss the immediate future of Southeast Asia.
Over the past two decades, ISEAS has compiled abridged articles that analyse key aspects of Southeast Asia’s development and the ASEAN process. The ASEAN Reader was published in 1992 just as the Cold War ended, while The Second ASEAN Reader came in 2003 in the wake of the 1997 Asian crisis and the September 11 attacks in 2001. The past decade has not been spared its share of intense changes, with the rise of China and India bringing new challenges to the region’s power equation, and the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis. Despite this, the momentum towards an integrated ASEAN community has been maintained. The articles in The Third ASEAN Reader study the trends and events of recent years, and discuss the immediate future of Southeast Asia.
