Malaysia Post Mahathir

James Prof. Chin

Description

Mahathir Mohamad stepped down as Malaysia's longest serving prime minister in 2003. Officially he does not hold any political office, but his views and influence still prevail. He was largely responsible for deposing his handpicked successor, Abdullah Badawi, and he is in the process of trying to do the same to the current PM Najib Razak. But Malaysian society has moved beyond Mahathir especially in the non-political arena. Malaysian youths are now more open and largely influenced by social media, as can be seen in Barisan Nasional's loss of the popular vote in the 2013 general. At the same time, Malaysian society has become more Islamic and conservative. The government is still pursuing Anwar Ibrahim, Mahathir's nemesis, through the courts. This collection of essays will look at how Malaysian society has evolved in the past decade without Mahathir as PM. While there are groups in Malaysia that would like to see the return of Mahathirism, others are questioning if Malaysia is heading in the right direction or Malaysia should return to Mahathir-type policies.

Sujets

• Islam
• Malaisie
• History of Asia
• Media studies
• Malaysia
• 21st century
• Malasia
• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: Marshall Cavendish International
• Date de parution: 30 août 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789814677554
• Langue: English

Extrait

MALAYSIA POST-MAHATHIR

2015 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited
All essays in this volume are the copyright of the editors and contributors. The use of the images on the cover is asserted via Creative Commons License and Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Photos on pages 204 , 205 , 207 , 211 courtesy of Azharr Rudin and Da Huang Pictures.
Published in 2015 by Marshall Cavendish Editions
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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Malaysia post-Mahathir : a decade of change? / edited by James Chin Joern Dosch. - Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2015.
pages cm
Includes index.
eISBN : 978 981 4677 55 4
1. Malaysia - Politics and government - 21st century. 2. Malaysia - Government policy - 21st century. 3. Malaysia - Social conditions - 21st century. 4. Mahathir bin Mohamad, 1925- I. Chin, Ung-Ho, 1967- editor. II. Dosch, J rn, editor.
DS597.2
959.506 -- dc23 OCN919476970

Printed in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd
CONTENTS
Preface
1 The Strongman: A Brief Introduction - James Chin Joern Dosch
2 A Decade Later: The Lasting Shadow of Mahathir - James Chin
3 Identity Formations in Contemporary Malaysia: Traversing and Transcending Ethnicity - Marco Ferrarese, Joseph N Goh, Julian CH Lee Caryn Lim
4 From Electrons to Photons: Industrial Policy in the Malaysian High-tech Manufacturing Sector Post-Mahathir - Joel Moore
5 Malaysia s Foreign Policy: Is Mahathirism Still Alive? - Joern Dosch
6 Falling between Two Stools? Malaysia s Post-Mahathir Profile in International Society - Linda Quayle
7 Negotiating Tensions in the Discourses of Gender, Sexuality and Religion - Sharon A Bong
8 Space, Nostalgia and Loneliness: Authorship and Politics in the Films of Azharr Rudin - Jonathan Driskell

Contributors
Index
About the Editors
PREFACE


Every edited book is the result of a long journey. While Malaysia Post-Mahathir is no different, it started out in a unique way. Our project on taking stock of important developments in Malaysia since the nation s long-serving prime minister stepped down in 2003, began as a truly collective and collaborative effort at Monash University Malaysia. More precisely, in early 2012 when the idea for this book was born, the authors of the eight chapters were all based at the School of Arts and Social Sciences. In a distinctive fashion the School brings together a broad range of different scholarly approaches to the study of Southeast Asia in general and Malaysia in particular-including, but not limited to, the academic disciplines of political science, international relations, communication and media studies, sociology, social anthropology and gender studies.
We soon discovered that our individual perspectives on Malaysian politics, economics, society, culture and foreign relations offered the opportunity to present a rare, multifaceted and interdisciplinary yet complementary and stimulating picture of Malaysia today. To what extent has Malaysia changed since the Mahathir era came to a formal end? Or has the country basically stayed the same for the past dozen years? These are the key questions which we try to answer throughout the book. To be sure, we are not the only ones who engage in drawing up a balance sheet of Malaysia post-Mahathir. However, we strongly believe that our multi-layered analysis provides a constructive and fruitful contribution to discourses and debates about contemporary Malaysia within the country itself and abroad. The contributions for this volume evolved and advanced through many discussions and exchanges among the authors between 2012 and 2015. During this time, some of us moved on to take on new responsibilities outside Malaysia. While we are no longer united at Monash University, this book is nevertheless the result of an exceptional team effort and gives evidence that a multidisciplinary approach can be very useful and rewarding.
We would like to thank the following for their assistance towards this project: Lee Weng Keng, Helen Bartlett, David James Young, Woo Wing Thye, Phang Koon Tuck, Marco Buente, Tan Mei Sie, Joyce Tang Hooi Ru, Helen Nesadurai, Andrew Ng, Yeoh Seng Guan, Adrian Yao, Callum Gilmour, Julian Hopkins, Melissa Wong Yuet Fun, Tan Meng Yoe, Kevin Tan Khai Phen, Fong Yew Soon, Felicia Chang Mei Lin, Christine Anne Wong, Yvonne Chan Kuan Gek, Nurul Farahin Drahim, Nurul Fazreen binti Daud and Hamdi bin Mohd Barjah.

James Chin Joern Dosch
Hobart and Rostock, September 2015
1 THE STRONGMAN: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
JAMES CHIN JOERN DOSCH
Mahathir Mohamad was the longest-serving prime minister of Malaysia, holding the post for 22 years from 1981 to 2003. His political career spanned almost 40 years and it is generally agreed that Malaysia s landscape was physically transformed under his tenure; all the major iconic symbols associated with Malaysia such as the Petronas Twin Towers and the capital of Putrajaya were initiated and built by Mahathir. 1 The story about Mahathir the person and Malaysian politics under his leadership has been told and re-told many times over. While it is not the purpose of this book to provide yet another account of the successes and failures of his premiership, it seems essential to begin with some biographical notes as the starting point for a comprehensive analysis of the continuities and changes which have shaped Malaysian politics, economics and society since Mahathir stepped down as prime minister. Love it or hate it, Mahathirism lives on either as the broad ideological base, which still provides the most important reference point for everything that happens in Malaysia today, or as the counterfactual for any attempt at moving away from the strongman s legacy.
EARLY LIFE
Mahathir bin Mohamad was born on 10 July 1925 in a little town called Alor Star in the northern Malaysian state of Kedah. His father, a teacher, was of Indian descent while his mother was Malay. 2 Mahathir went to an English-medium school and was obviously a good student. Initially his studies were interrupted by the Japanese occupation (1941-1945) but he went back to complete his high school after the war. Although he wanted to study law, he was unable to secure a scholarship to go to England. Nevertheless, his outstanding academic results in the Cambridge School Certificate gave him a place in King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore. After graduation, he worked as a government doctor and in 1956, he married Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, the only female medical student in his class. 3
Mahathir only served in the government hospital for four years before opening his own clinic in his hometown Alor Star. As the only private clinic in town operated by a Malay doctor, his clinic quickly became known as UMNO Clinic . Even then at such an early stage, he was already associated with UMNO.
Using his status as the first Malay doctor in Alor Star, Mahathir then became chairman of UMNO Kedah. Although he did not stand as a candidate in the 1959 local elections, he stood and won a seat in the 1964 parliamentary elections representing the Alor Star seat. A year later he was elected to the UMNO Supreme Council but was defeated in the 1969 general elections.
THE MALAY DILEMMA
After the infamous May 13 racial riots, Mahathir had a major falling out with Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia s founding prime minister and a prince from the Kedah royal household. He wrote an open letter criticising the Tunku s leadership and blaming him for the racial riots, a result of what Mahathir alleged were Tunku s pro-Chinese policies. He even called on Tunku to resign as prime minister. Reaction was swift. Mahathir was expelled from the UMNO Supreme Council on 12 July 1969 and formally expelled from the party on 26 September. On paper Tunku won that battle but in reality, Mahathir won because power was then transferred to Tun Abdul Razak, the deputy prime minister and chairman of the National Operations Council (NOC). The NOC had taken over the government when Parliament was suspended in the aftermath of the riots so while Tunku retained his title as prime minister, effective power was in the hands of Razak and the NOC. Mahathir s open letter had permanently damaged Tunku s authority and Tunku resigned a year later in September 1970.
Mahathir spent the months outside UMNO writing The Malay Dilemma , the book that would cement his reputation as the Malay champion of his generation. 4 In the book, Mahat