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Chaos in Malaysia

In May 2018, the mood in Malaysia was jubilant. One of the greatest get-out-the-vote drives in history had resulted in an overthrow of a party that had ruled Malaysia for 61 years. The corruption, infighting and poor governance (spectacularly demonstrated by then-Prime Minister Najib Razak’s billion-dollar 1MDB scandal) had finally caught up with Barisan Nasional and the United Malays National Organisation. UMNO was to be replaced by the aptly named Pakatan Harapan, or Coalition of Hope.

‘I don’t think I imagined that what happened would actually come to pass,’ the Malaysian illustrator Charis Loke recalled in this magazine a year later.

The jubilation was short-lived, however. Recent years have seen a return to the politicking and bickering that plagued Malaysia’s government for so long. On Saturday Ismail Sabri was sworn in as the third prime minister in as many years. Days earlier, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his cabinet resigned, following just 17 months of chaotic rule. The country’s shortest-serving prime minister came to power last March with the slimmest of parliamentary support—part of a backroom deal that toppled the elected government led by Mahathir Mohamad. Once again, infighting has imploded the administration.

As usual, the nastiness of the politics distracts from the larger problems at hand: Malaysia is in desperate need of a good government. Covid-19 cases have been steadily rising since March, now topping 20,000 a day. In spite of its strong healthcare system and a vaccination rate above 50 per cent, the country has among the highest infection and death rate in the world. A lengthy lockdown and protracted state of emergency have done little to quash the virus, with the economy suffering in tandem.

For nearly a month, demonstrators have been calling for Muhyiddin’s resignation. The #lawan, or fight, protesters seek to call attention to the stark failings of the government. Citing Covid restrictions, authorities have responded with a heavy hand. On Thursday night, police arrested 31 people participating in a vigil for victims of the virus. Among those detained were a number of democracy activists instrumental in getting out the vote in 2018, and successfully pushing for a bill to lower voting age from 21 to 18. While implementation of the law has been delayed, whatever government comes to power in the coming weeks would be wise to consider who will soon be voting.

From the archives

Bangkok days

Pim Wangtechawat

As someone born and raised in Bangkok, no matter how often I heard outsiders characterise the city a ‘bounty of sensory pleasures’, it always felt as though they were describing a place that didn’t exist. Despite its many mazes, its contrasting shades and sides, to me Bangkok is simply home, a place where you spend your life navigating the traffic, the humidity and the shopping malls. And the nature of home is that it remains the same. However it might feel to others, my Bangkok was stagnant, impervious to progress. And to live in it was to be bound by its sense of uniformity.

I spent my childhood and teenage years feeling out of place in my own city and yearning to be somewhere else, to belong somewhere else. Other places in the world—whether it be London, Paris, Tokyo, Milan—all seemed rich and intoxicating in comparison. So whenever I heard visitors or friends from abroad rhapsodising about how much they ‘love Bangkok’, I always felt sceptical and detached from their positive sentiment. There are many things about being from Bangkok that these outsiders could never understand—especially the way life is lived here, which, as a young person, I find mundane and stifling. Unless you become an actor or a pop star, your entire ‘ordinary’ life is already laid out before you — a good education, a steady job, a steady income and then a family.

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Check it out:

Recent decades have seen breakneck development of Phnom Penh. Cartophiles and anyone with an interest in Cambodia’s mushrooming capital are likely to enjoy poring through this delightful collection of more than 150 years of Phnom Penh maps collected by Southeast Asia Globe.

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