Though Malaysia has a king which follows a line of
hereditary ascension AND is elected Malaysia is mostly modeled on a
parliamentary system. Despite the availability of Malaysians to elect leaders,
more or less the same party has been in power since Malaysian independence 55
years ago. Barisan Nasional formed in 1973 as the successor to the Alliance
is the ruling party and it has been that party or say coalition in charge as
long as most Malaysians can remember. This party is mostly ethnic Malay and indigenous
people which make up about 60% of Malaysia’s population. Interestingly, especially
where I live in Penang, there are a lot of ethnically Chinese Malaysians often
called the Straits Chinese (at least in Penang). In the last election BN was
upset by the winning of other parties on a scale large enough to set up opposition
parties in state governments. Penang being one of those as it is ruled by the Democratic
Action Party (DAP) which is largely an ethnically Chinese party and part of the
Pakatan Rakyat, an alliance between three parties including two others which Islamic
leanings. This election is expected to be even more contentious and though BN
is expected to win the overall election the margin is set to be close. Penang
will almost certainly remain in DAP control, but
who knows about other states.
BN has certainly been making an effort here in Penang. Last
week they held a free banquet in Batu Ferringi which I heard hosted 3,000
people. I have heard that they are giving away free grain and other goodies to
communities, especially ethnic Indians, in the hopes that it will sway voters
their way.
Personally I hope the alliance wins more seats. BN has an ok
record, but the racism and corruption are too much. I was talking with one of
my students the other day, an ethnically Indian girl, who told me she had
gotten a scholarship to a local college but choose instead to come pay for our
school because after college she had little chance of getting into a university
in Malaysia. When I looked up the statistics I saw she was right. 70% of slots
are allotted to ethnically Malay while they make up only 50% of the population.
This kind of overt racism, touted as a way to help the under-achieving Malay
population, hasn’t worked. In addition, I need only look to the efforts on the
part of BN to buy votes to see the corruption, but I’m sure that issue goes
much deeper.
Last night my friend and I stocked up at the grocery store
for what could potentially be a few days at home. The election is contentious
enough in our state that our school even put out an announcement that Monday would
possibly be a holiday if rioting occurred. I’m hoping that no one gets hurt of
course, but it sure would be interesting if that were to occur. Probably the most interesting thing for me is
that the rioting may not occur along party lines, but racial ones.
