• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.91-118
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• 2016

As all are aware, the results of the Malaysia 12th General Election (GE-12) in 2008 have surprised many. Not only the dominant parties Barisan Nasional (BN) were shocked by the loss of significant numbers of seats but for the first time in the history of Malaysia politics, vis-${\grave{a}}$-vis, electoral affairs, they were denied a two-thirds majority in the Parliament. Notwithstanding the opposition parties such as Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR: The People's Justice Party) that form the opposition coalition called Pakatan Rakyat (People's Alliance: PR), has come to a surprised with the GE-12 result, in which they not even think that were able to challenge hegemonic politics of BN, managed to capture and formed a government at the state level namely Kedah, Penang, Perak, and Selangor, except Kelantan which has been under the control of PAS since the 1990 general election. This article aims to analyze whether Sabah as a "fixed deposit"state is still relevant in understanding the continuity and survival of the BN political hegemony in the context of Malaysia political developments post-13th general election.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.201-238
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• 2012

This study analyses the nexus between political change and development of parliamentary politics in Malaysia. The continued and stable parliamentary politics did not necessarily associated with political development in Malaysia for the last five decades. Except the 1969 general election, the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional(BN), has never been failed to obtain the two-third majority of parliamentary seats even though there has been regular general elections in every 4-5 years without any interruption. It is, however, worth noting that there has been dramatic political changes since the late 1990s. In particular, the 2008 general election showed the remarkable results, collapsing the two-third majority of BN's parliamentary seats. The opposition parties even took over the 5 state governments out of 12 in total. The more distinguished feature was the emergence of opposition coalition, called Pakatan Rakyak(PR), right after the 2008 general election. It was the first united coalition in Malaysia's modern political history among the severely divided opposition parties. Since its emergence, the PR has initiated various changes leading towards a more active parliamentary politics. In this regards, this study argues that parliamentary politics is no more regarded as a dependent variable in Malaysia's political process.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.45-87
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• 2014

This study traces the possibility of political change in the Malaysian electoral history, especially by focusing on the 13th general election held in May 2013. The results of the 13th general election was another turning point in the history of Malaysia's electoral politics. Following after the 12th general election held in 2008, opposition coalition(PR) achieves a remarkable electoral result by obtaining over 50% of the total votes. Opposition parties also successfully collapsed the ruling coalition(BN)'s two-third majority in parliamentary. It was de-facto defeat of the ruling coalition and victory of the opposition coalition. More precisely, the 2013 election results show that the reformasi movement, which was active in 1998-99 period, are still alive and its impact on Malaysian electoral politics get stronger. Malaysia has long been considered as a typical electoral authoritarian regime since its independence in 1957. It is because that there has been negative relations between electoral politics and political change through out its electoral history. As shown in the most recent two general elections held in 2008 and 2013, however, Malaysia's hegemonic political system can be possibly changed through electoral politics. This article examines the detailed results of the series of post-reformarsi general elections(1999, 2004, 2008, 2013) and its political implications towards the nexus of electoral politics and political change under the electoral authoritarian regime in Malaysia.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.213-261
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• 2018

On May 9, 2018, regime change took place in Malaysia. It was the first regime change that took place in 61 years after independence in 1957. The regime change was an unexpected result not only in Malaysian experts but also in political circles. Moreover, the outcome of the election was more shocking because the opposition party was divided in this general election. The regime change in Malaysia was enough to attract worldwide attention because it meant the collapse of the oldest regime in the modern political system that exists, except North Korea and China. How could this have happened? In particular, how could the regime change, which had not been accomplished despite opposition parties' cooperation for almost 20 years, could be achieved with the divided opposition forces? What political implications does the 2018 general election result have for political change and democratization in Malaysia? How will the Malaysian politics be developed in the aftermath of the regime change? It is worth noting that during the process of finding answers, a series of general elections since the start of reformasi in 1998 tended to be likened to a series of "tsunami" in the Malaysian electoral history. This phenomenon of tsunami means that, even though very few predicted the possibility of regime change among academia, civil society and political circles, the regime change was not sudden. In other words, the regime in 2018 was the result of the desire and expectation of political change through a series of elections of Malaysian voters last 20 years. In this context, this study, in analyzing the results of the election in 2018, shows that the activation of electoral politics triggered by the reform movement in 1998, along with the specific situational factors in 2018, could lead to collapse of the ruling government for the first time since independence.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.307-344
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• 2014

Political parties would normally claim that their campaign and communication materials have effects on voters, be it on their supporters or their opponents during election campaigns. However, such effects are assumed effects by the parties unless voters are themselves assessed about the effects of such materials on themselves. The supporters of the parties are likely to regard such campaign materials as congenial to them but this may not be so with the opposition supporters who would regard such materials as negative. Taking the third-person effect to analyze effects on the audience as the theoretical framework, this study posited that opposition members would regard the materials as negative and thus would claim that they would not have any effect on them but they would likely say that such campaign materials would have effects on own party supporters. Davison (1983) posited that individuals will perceive that negative mediated messages would have their greatest impact not "on me" or "you" but on "them,"- the third person. Research suggests that people judge others to be more influenced than they are by media, advertising, libelous messages, media violence, pornography, and television drama. The theory referred to as the Third-person effect developed on the postulation that audience members would not admit that media had any direct effect on them, but would instead believe that the media influenced others, the third person (Tewksbury, Moy, & Weis, 2004; Price, Tewksbury, & Huang, 1998). On the other hand, while people would discount the effects of negative or biased messages on themselves, they would, under the notion of the First Person Effect, readily admit to being influenced by such messages. This study was based on studying the effects of political literature on party and opposition party supporters taking the messages to be positive to one group and biased and partisan to another group. The study focuses on the assumed effects of political literature on own party and opposition party supporters. It traces the degree of influence of Malaysia's largest political party, Barisan Nasional (BN) political communication literature on its own supporters and on non-BN party supporters. While the third-person effect assumes a null or minimal effect on one's self and some or strong effect on others, the question that arises are on welcoming favorable media effects on oneself and assuming unfavorable effects on others.