Even if he were to step down, it’s not going to change anything but the PM occupying that PM Office in Putrajaya…It just going to be business as usual….UMNO is not going to change its true color for anyone…
One can do all the analyses, but result remains i.e. BN whether one likes it or not won. Let’s hope for the sake of everyone in the country, Malaysia will have Peace, Progress and Prosperity under PM Nagib’s expressed desire of 1 MALAYSIA. It is never easy to govern a multi-racial nation as there would be different interests and aspirations. Only a strong & unbias leader can lead a successful and progressive country. Best wishes for a good future to all Malaysians.
That said, it is also important for potential future women candidates to balance between advocating for gender-related problems and issues, while also bringing up other core issues, so they do not become pigeonholed. Feminism is still largely a dirty concept in Malaysia even among the educated class. It would be an uphill, but not impossible, task for these new blood to learn to produce more nuanced approaches to such issues even as they will still have to make inroads into a predominantly boys club (on both sides of the political divide). Political representation merely reflects how women are often passed over in many public events that would require their substantial input and involvement, and not merely as ‘manual laborers’.
If Malaysia consist only Peninsula, PR would be the Federal Govt. However, Malaysia also includes Sabah and Sarawak (East Malaysia)
Given the electoral districts in East Malaysia and the lack of access to the voters in rural East Malaysia by PR, it would be nearly impossible for PR to get a majority at Federal level.
Just look at the numbers – BN 133 Federal seats Vs 89 for PR. A simple 44 seat majority. BN has 47 seat out of 56 available in East Malaysia. This means the entire win is predicated upon East Malaysia’s seats.
To conclude, if PR is to ever take over Federal, it would need to put lots and lots of boots on the ground in East Malaysia.
[…] UMNO self-sabo – Breakfast Network: A Malaysian black-out or black eye? – New Mandala: How would a foreign worker vote, anyway? – A Singaporean In Australia: Black […]
BN has made no commitments to field women candidates, but PR has – and they fell well short of their promise. We need to put pressure on them now to train potential candidates and get them in the field now, so that they’re ready for GE14. And we need to get BN to make a similar commitment.
Thank you for this provoking article. What is surprising is not that the BN won, but the size of the victory, particularly in Perak.
However, I think that this article overlooks a few important points and, as others have said, is overly favourable to Najib Tun Razak.
First, given that he made himself responsible for the campaign in Selangor and for regaining 2/3 in Parliament, Najib’s position within Umno is fairly precarious. Whatever his qualities, it seems unlikely that he will be PM in a year’s time – especially with Kedah returned to the BN fold under Mukhriz.
Second, regardless of how it’s being played by BN and the mainstream media, race was not the decisive factor in this election. Nik Aziz said age was more important to Pas – but I suspect a mixture of age and access to internet news sources were the key factors. ‘Race’ is becoming a less salient cleavage, though still important.
In this vein, this election was primarily won in the non-Malay Bumiputra heartland. If Pakatan wants to make gains, they have to make a much more concerted effort to understand both the politics of Sarawak, in particular, and Sabah, and also the manner in which politics is carried out so successfully there by BN.
Lastly, Pakatan lost Federally, and lost (in practice) Perak and Kedah. However they picked up 71 state seats and just over half the popular vote. These are no mean achievements given the hurdles you outline above. BN is going to have to work hard in Johor, something that seemed off the radar in 2008.
The next few weeks will be important in how the next few years play out. The EC needs an urgent overhaul, their defense of the indelible ink fiasco, their inability to manage the postal votes and their inability to instil confidence in large swathes of the electorate undermine BN’s victory further. Likewise, BN needs to find a new direction – the facade of a multi-racial coalition is crumbling. The need to find stronger grounds for legitimacy than those they are claiming.
I’m not, and wasn’t!, brave enough to make predictions, but still think Malaysia is coming out of these elections with a stronger democracy than it began them. This can only be good.
Ref “rural bias”. One trick was for BN to instal junction boxes in rural villages with the promise of electricity to come. I wonder how long these villagers will have to wait?
Thank you for this Nomis – some great stuff there. We’ll try and get permission to archive some of the content. Yee I Lann’s collections aren’t displaying, I’m hoping that’s only temporary.
Agree with your comments. Such a total waste of time and resources on who’s got or going to get a bigger slice, where they came from etc. While all these are going on, other countries have surged ahead: see nearest neighbour Singapore and countries like Korea. I followed the elections hoping or a safer and fairer futures for my friends and relatives in Malaysia but was horrified with the videos of phantom voters and votes, vote buying, magic ballot papers …. only imaginable in a non civilised society. What a shame but at the same time, sorry for the Malaysians who had hopes for a safer and fairer system.
Mchael, Tuan Albakri or Dato’ Mustafa Albakri was my grandfather. I have always been very proud of him. You have just made me prouder. I knew my late grandfather had been the Election Commissioner at one time. In the run-up to this election will all the attention on the SPR, the accusations against it and the dismissive attitude by its officers to these allegations, I was reminded of the type of person I knew my grandfather to be and I could not imagine that he would have condoned let alone have been the architect of such fraudulent and unfair practices in his tenure as Election Commissioner. Thank you for confirming what I have always believed. What is sad is that there seems to be a total lack of Malaysians with the kind of integrity Tuan Albakri had. The processes and results of this election are evidence of that.
May I ask where you came by this information and if you knew where I could obtain a copy of the 1960 Delineation report? My email is [email protected]
Facebook 
Twitter 
Soundcloud 
Youtube 
Rss
Malaysian PM should resign, says expert
Even if he were to step down, it’s not going to change anything but the PM occupying that PM Office in Putrajaya…It just going to be business as usual….UMNO is not going to change its true color for anyone…
Malaysian PM should resign, says expert
Datuk Najib must not step down, this is a chinese political tsunumi and not a malaysian tsunumi. So it is not necesary for Datuk Najib to stepdown.
A first pass at the GE13 results
One can do all the analyses, but result remains i.e. BN whether one likes it or not won. Let’s hope for the sake of everyone in the country, Malaysia will have Peace, Progress and Prosperity under PM Nagib’s expressed desire of 1 MALAYSIA. It is never easy to govern a multi-racial nation as there would be different interests and aspirations. Only a strong & unbias leader can lead a successful and progressive country. Best wishes for a good future to all Malaysians.
One extra woman in Malaysia’s parliament
That said, it is also important for potential future women candidates to balance between advocating for gender-related problems and issues, while also bringing up other core issues, so they do not become pigeonholed. Feminism is still largely a dirty concept in Malaysia even among the educated class. It would be an uphill, but not impossible, task for these new blood to learn to produce more nuanced approaches to such issues even as they will still have to make inroads into a predominantly boys club (on both sides of the political divide). Political representation merely reflects how women are often passed over in many public events that would require their substantial input and involvement, and not merely as ‘manual laborers’.
Live coverage of Malaysia’s election
I believe about it
A first pass at the GE13 results
If Malaysia consist only Peninsula, PR would be the Federal Govt. However, Malaysia also includes Sabah and Sarawak (East Malaysia)
Given the electoral districts in East Malaysia and the lack of access to the voters in rural East Malaysia by PR, it would be nearly impossible for PR to get a majority at Federal level.
Just look at the numbers – BN 133 Federal seats Vs 89 for PR. A simple 44 seat majority. BN has 47 seat out of 56 available in East Malaysia. This means the entire win is predicated upon East Malaysia’s seats.
To conclude, if PR is to ever take over Federal, it would need to put lots and lots of boots on the ground in East Malaysia.
Live coverage of Malaysia’s election
Alright. Thank you very much
New Mandala’s GE13 wrap up
Great coverage – thanks ANU!
A first pass at the GE13 results
It would be nice to add a rural or distance from major city dummy variable to the regression.
How would a foreign worker vote, anyway?
[…] UMNO self-sabo – Breakfast Network: A Malaysian black-out or black eye? – New Mandala: How would a foreign worker vote, anyway? – A Singaporean In Australia: Black […]
One extra woman in Malaysia’s parliament
BN has made no commitments to field women candidates, but PR has – and they fell well short of their promise. We need to put pressure on them now to train potential candidates and get them in the field now, so that they’re ready for GE14. And we need to get BN to make a similar commitment.
Pakatan will not win
Thank you for this provoking article. What is surprising is not that the BN won, but the size of the victory, particularly in Perak.
However, I think that this article overlooks a few important points and, as others have said, is overly favourable to Najib Tun Razak.
First, given that he made himself responsible for the campaign in Selangor and for regaining 2/3 in Parliament, Najib’s position within Umno is fairly precarious. Whatever his qualities, it seems unlikely that he will be PM in a year’s time – especially with Kedah returned to the BN fold under Mukhriz.
Second, regardless of how it’s being played by BN and the mainstream media, race was not the decisive factor in this election. Nik Aziz said age was more important to Pas – but I suspect a mixture of age and access to internet news sources were the key factors. ‘Race’ is becoming a less salient cleavage, though still important.
In this vein, this election was primarily won in the non-Malay Bumiputra heartland. If Pakatan wants to make gains, they have to make a much more concerted effort to understand both the politics of Sarawak, in particular, and Sabah, and also the manner in which politics is carried out so successfully there by BN.
Lastly, Pakatan lost Federally, and lost (in practice) Perak and Kedah. However they picked up 71 state seats and just over half the popular vote. These are no mean achievements given the hurdles you outline above. BN is going to have to work hard in Johor, something that seemed off the radar in 2008.
The next few weeks will be important in how the next few years play out. The EC needs an urgent overhaul, their defense of the indelible ink fiasco, their inability to manage the postal votes and their inability to instil confidence in large swathes of the electorate undermine BN’s victory further. Likewise, BN needs to find a new direction – the facade of a multi-racial coalition is crumbling. The need to find stronger grounds for legitimacy than those they are claiming.
I’m not, and wasn’t!, brave enough to make predictions, but still think Malaysia is coming out of these elections with a stronger democracy than it began them. This can only be good.
A first pass at the GE13 results
Ref “rural bias”. One trick was for BN to instal junction boxes in rural villages with the promise of electricity to come. I wonder how long these villagers will have to wait?
Desperately seeking Malaysian election ephemera
Thank you for this Nomis – some great stuff there. We’ll try and get permission to archive some of the content. Yee I Lann’s collections aren’t displaying, I’m hoping that’s only temporary.
Analysing Malaysia’s GE13
Democracy and victory have lost their true meaning in Malaysia.
Live coverage of Malaysia’s election
If a Muslim country can be easily corrupted, The BN will feel guilty if they do not play dirty
Why is Malaysia experiencing a brain drain?
Agree with your comments. Such a total waste of time and resources on who’s got or going to get a bigger slice, where they came from etc. While all these are going on, other countries have surged ahead: see nearest neighbour Singapore and countries like Korea. I followed the elections hoping or a safer and fairer futures for my friends and relatives in Malaysia but was horrified with the videos of phantom voters and votes, vote buying, magic ballot papers …. only imaginable in a non civilised society. What a shame but at the same time, sorry for the Malaysians who had hopes for a safer and fairer system.
Election Commission in the spotlight
Mchael, Tuan Albakri or Dato’ Mustafa Albakri was my grandfather. I have always been very proud of him. You have just made me prouder. I knew my late grandfather had been the Election Commissioner at one time. In the run-up to this election will all the attention on the SPR, the accusations against it and the dismissive attitude by its officers to these allegations, I was reminded of the type of person I knew my grandfather to be and I could not imagine that he would have condoned let alone have been the architect of such fraudulent and unfair practices in his tenure as Election Commissioner. Thank you for confirming what I have always believed. What is sad is that there seems to be a total lack of Malaysians with the kind of integrity Tuan Albakri had. The processes and results of this election are evidence of that.
May I ask where you came by this information and if you knew where I could obtain a copy of the 1960 Delineation report? My email is [email protected]
New Mandala’s GE13 wrap up
Approximately 3am in Canberra, 1am in Kuala Lumpur – BN declared winner with simple majority.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/05/us-malaysia-election-idUSBRE9430B720130505
How Malaysia’s electoral system works
Tom Pepinsky has some excellent but parsimonious analysis of previous elections and run-up to GE13.
http://blogs.cornell.edu/indolaysia/2013/04/29/malaysia-13th-general-elections-preview-index/