Malaysia

B

The Coming of Independence

Malaya, Sarawak, and North Borneo were seized by the Japanese in 1941 and 1942 and remained under Japanese occupation until World War II ended in 1945. Ethnic rivalries complicated the movement for independence that emerged after the war. The British had encouraged Chinese and Indian immigration to supply labor needed by the tin, rubber, and other industries. In the 1940s the population of the Malay states was approximately 50 percent Malay, 37 percent Chinese, and 12 percent Indian. Deep divisions separated these groups, coinciding substantially with religious and linguistic differences. With independence approaching, Malays expressed concern that immigrants would acquire political power. In 1946 they protested successfully against a scheme, known as the Malayan Union, that would have given most immigrants citizenship and voting rights while reducing the power of the Malay rulers. In 1948 the peninsular states formed the Federation of Malaya, which retained the power of the sultans.

The Alliance, the dominant political party that emerged in the 1950s, was multiethnic in its leadership but also ensured separate representation of ethnic groups through three component parties: the United Malays National Organization, the Malayan Chinese Association, and the Malayan Indian Congress. The Alliance won an overwhelming victory in the first nationwide elections in 1955. The British and the Alliance worked out the constitution, providing for a federal state; a bicameral parliament consisting of one elected and one appointed body; citizenship for most non-Malays; and special provisions for the Malays, who were regarded as less economically developed and were given preference for civil service jobs, scholarships, and licenses. In 1957 the Federation of Malaya (which occupied what is now West Malaysia) gained independence from Britain. It joined the United Nations that same year.

Meanwhile, the government had been fighting a Communist-led rebellion, known as the Malayan Emergency, since 1948. Most Communists were poor ethnic Chinese who were opposed to British colonial rule. When the Federation of Malaya became independent in 1957, they continued to fight for Communist rule. By the time the conflict finally ended in 1960, about 11,000 people had died. Not until 1989, however, did the Communists formally agree to lay down their arms.

C

An Independent Malaysia

In 1961 Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaya’s first prime minister, proposed a Malaysian federation of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, North Borneo (later called Sabah), and Brunei. All but Brunei joined the federation in 1963. Economic and political disputes based on racial differences led to Singapore’s exit in 1965.

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Since independence, ethnic disputes have dominated Malaysian politics. In the 1960s these disputes centered on the preeminence of Malays in politics and the supremacy of Chinese and Indians in the economic arena. In the 1969 general elections, the Alliance faced opposition from both Malay and non-Malay parties. Immediately afterward serious rioting broke out in Kuala Lumpur and at least 200 people were killed. The government invoked emergency powers and imposed restrictions on raising ethnically sensitive issues; parliament did not meet again until 1971.

The new prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak, announced a new program called the New Economic Policy (NEP) to alleviate poverty in general, but also to improve specifically the economic condition of the Malays. Among the goals of the NEP was to increase the employment of Malays in occupations dominated by non-Malays. He also broadened the Alliance (already extended to Sarawak and Sabah) into an organization called the National Front, which included some opposition parties. The National Front won the 1974 elections decisively and also, under Prime Minister Datuk Hussein Onn, the 1978 elections. Ethnicity, however, still dominated the political scene, and two major opposition parties opposed the National Front: the Islamic Party of Malaysia and the Democratic Action Party. When Hussein Onn retired in 1981, he was succeeded by his deputy, Mahathir bin Mohamad, who would lead Malaysia for the next 22 years.

D

The Mahathir Era

A constitutional conflict in 1983 between the Mahathir government and the hereditary sultans led to a compromise restricting the power of Malaysia’s head of state (the Yang di-Pertuan Agong) to veto certain legislation. In 1987 the Mahathir government responded to the alleged threat of rising tensions between Malays and Chinese by arresting opposition leaders and suspending four newspapers. Constitutional amendments passed in 1993 and 1994 further restricted the powers of the head of state. The amendments prohibited the nine hereditary rulers from pardoning themselves or their families from criminal charges and removed the head of state’s power to delay legislation. The National Front, having won three consecutive victories in 1982, 1986, and 1990 with Mahathir as prime minister, gained an even greater majority in the elections of 1995. Mahathir again retained his position as prime minister.

In 1991 Mahathir launched his “Vision 2020” program to propel Malaysia into the ranks of developed industrialized nations by 2020. In 1997 and 1998, however, Southeast Asian financial markets suffered a serious blow when investors lost confidence in a number of Asian currencies and securities. During the regional economic crisis, the Mahathir government scaled back or postponed several important infrastructure projects. The impact of the crisis was not as severe in Malaysia as it was in some other Asian countries, but in the long term it was expected to delay Malaysia’s attainment of developed-nation status beyond 2020. Nevertheless, Malaysia continued to attract foreign investment and to develop as a major center of electronics manufacturing.

The economic crisis raised a political rift between Mahathir and Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who had also served as deputy prime minister and was regarded as Mahathir’s most likely successor. They differed on what Malaysia’s response to the sudden economic downturn should be, and in September 1998 Mahathir dismissed Anwar from his government posts. Anwar and his supporters then launched a campaign against government corruption, and demonstrations in support of reform began to gain momentum around the country.

In late September riot police arrested Anwar, and he was subsequently charged with abuse of power and personal misconduct. He denied the charges, claiming they were part of a political conspiracy against him. In two separate and highly publicized trials in 1999 and 2000, Anwar was convicted of abuse of power and sodomy and sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison. Despite the controversy surrounding Anwar’s arrest, the National Front decisively won November 1999 legislative elections, and Mahathir retained the office of prime minister.

E

New Prime Minister

In June 2002 Mahathir abruptly announced his resignation as the leader of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the dominant party in the National Front coalition. The announcement shocked his supporters, and he immediately agreed to remain in office until October 2003, thereby providing a transition period for his chosen successor, Minister of Home Affairs Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi. Mahathir formally resigned on October 31, and Badawi became Malaysia’s new prime minister as the leader of UMNO.

Badawi soon demonstrated his own stature as a leader when the National Front won an overwhelming victory in the parliamentary elections of March 2004. Even under Mahathir, the National Front had never won by such a landslide. The front won 198 seats, or 90 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives, an increase from 77 percent. The National Front also won control of 12 of Malaysia’s 13 state legislative assemblies. The elections represented a major defeat for the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS), a fundamentalist party that had been the official opposition party and had previously controlled two state assemblies. PAS won just 7 seats, a decline from 26 seats, and it lost control of the state legislature in Terengganu, where it had imposed religious bans on alcohol and gambling. The official opposition party became the ethnic Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP), which won 12 seats.

However, in 2008 the National Front coalition suffered its worst election result in decades, losing its two-thirds parliamentary majority and control of five state assemblies. Malaysia’s three main opposition parties—PAS, DAP, and the People’s Justice Party (PKR)—won a record number of seats and agreed to set aside their differences to form a coalition that could present a challenge to the National Front’s hold on power. These efforts were led by former government minister Anwar Ibrahim, who had been released from prison in 2004 after the Federal Court (Malaysia’s highest court) overturned the sodomy conviction against him. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Badawi came under sharp criticism for his leadership and faced a revolt within UMNO, with former prime minister Mahathir calling for his resignation in order to save the party.

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