Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim speaks in Kuala Lumpur April 10, 2013. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad
In Malaysia, the ruling National Front, a diverse coalition that includes 13 parties, has dominated politics for over half a century. As a result, elections have tended to be less-than-thrilling affairs. But a growing number of ethnic Chinese frustrated at a society defined by generous perks for native Malays in college admissions, land sales, and other public services has fed a surge by the People’s Alliance, an opposition coalition that gained a modest but significant foothold in parliament after 2008 elections. Since then, Prime Minister Najib Razak has seen his governing alliance shed support, which finally led him to dissolve parliament last week, paving the way for another round of voting. On Wednesday, we learned the contest will be held May 5.
Good news for the opposition, right? A chance to build on its momentum and perhaps even seize power, it would seem. After all, a recent poll found public support for the government dipping below 50 percent, and dissatisfaction with Razak reaching an all-time high of 32 percent. But the resurgent opposition movement, which has forged unlikely alliances between Islamists and ethnic Chinese, overcoming immense ideological divides (including the thorny question of Sharia law) in part thanks to a shared legacy of unjust imprisonment by the regime, can’t be pleased with the puny amount of time it has to work with. Even Venezuela, a political culture so dominated by Hugo Chavez that the opposition there has little hope of achieving parity despite having run a vigorous campaign just last year, has given its challengers a full month to make their case. How Malaysia’s marginalized parties can play catch-up in an environment where, as in Venezuela, the ruling coalition has a stranglehold not only on public institutions but also the national media is tough to envision.
The People’s Alliance and its candidates do have a few weeks to barnstorm the country, however. In fact, the 15-day campaign (after nominations are set on April 20) will be the longest in recent memory, albeit short of the 21 days suggested by a local electoral reform group. And the defensive posture from the incumbent, one whose campaign seems likely to consist almost entirely of dire warnings about Islamist charlatans bumbling their way into power, does not project strength or confidence. But a fractious insurgency that has yet to indicate whom it would install as prime minister if victorious (most assume it would be coalition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who served as deputy prime minister while a member of the ruling party in the 1990s) will struggle to make its case in so narrow a timeframe. Anwar will likely focus on graft and corruption, his probes of which led to a bitter dispute with his former political allies and even imprisonment for alleged homosexual sodomy. Political opponents went so far as to film a fake sex-tape allegedly featuring Anwar, but it was with a female prostitute — compromising (so to speak) their message discipline.
At the end of the day, a nasty amalgam of ethnic tension and religious strife remains the name of the game. The Israel card is a regular feature of Malaysian public life, Anwar and his political enemies often exchanging charges of Zionism — an insult in this anti-Semitic political culture. Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister under whom Anwar served, once notoriously said his deputy ”would make a good prime minister for Israel.” But if Anwar can keep the focus on domestic issues, where public dissatisfaction is clearly on the rise, he and his melting pot of followers have a fighting chance. They just have to pick up the pace.
