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Southeast Asia
Organized Panel Session
For the first time in Malaysia’s history, a change of national government took place after the 14thGeneral Elections held in May 2018. The win of the opposition Alliance of Hope (Pakatan Harapan) was a first after 61 years of continuous rule by the National Front (Barisan Nasional) coalition, and has important implications for other entrenched authoritarian governments in Asia and beyond. What explains the ability of opposition to win this time? To what extent does the election and its aftermath represent a “New Malaysia” which transcends traditional modes of political competition? What would the regime transition of Malaysia tell us about broader political and social transformations in other deeply divided nations around the Muslim world? This panel brings together scholars on Malaysia from the disciplines of political science, sociology, gender studies, and history as presenters and discussants to answer these questions. Drawing on diverse materials, methods, and approaches, the panel intends to situate the election and regime transition within broader research agendas on gender and politics, opposition challenges to authoritarian governments, and the challenges inherent in institutional reform. The papers examine the extent to which the parties sought to improve their gender representation, the causes and consequences of political strategies employed by the opposition to win power, and role of ethnic and religious identity in politics. This panel provides firsthand analysis into the events that led to a change in government while offering a forum to discuss critically and comparatively the possible trajectories of “New Malaysia.”
Kikue Hamayotsu
Northern Illinois University
Maznah Mohamad
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Kai Ostwald
University of British Columbia, Canada
Sebastian Dettman
Cornell University
Kikue Hamayotsu
Northern Illinois University
James Jesudason
Colorado School of Mines