00:01The cry for Malay unity is loud and clear at every election campaign.
00:06But in Malaysia, it is just identity politics, and it has always shaped our elections.
00:13Academic Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid and political analyst O E. Sun caution against drawing a
00:19parallel with the right-wing politics of the West.
00:22In Malaysia, they point out race is embedded in the constitutional framework itself.
00:28It places communal identity at the heart of politics.
00:32As a result, the narrative focuses more on Malay rights than their economic well-being.
00:38As Fauzi sees it, better wages, handouts or governance alone do not always win elections.
00:45The outcome of the Negeri Simbilan election proves the point.
00:48Even a well-regarded government can lose when identity politics takes centre stage.
00:54For O, this is not a surprise.
00:57So, it's not as if we never had this sort of, like, you know, racial identities.
01:07It has always been that.
01:08For Fauzi, this is not simply imported right-wing politics.
01:12It is nationalism woven into statecraft.
01:16As former Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming recently pointed out,
01:19even Pakatan Harapan benefited from identity politics or also sees it in the nation's political DNA.
01:28And from time to time, it will raise its ugly head.
01:31And this is the time when it is raising its ugly head again.
01:35Then at some point, it might submerge.
01:38And at some future point, it will raise.
01:40Because structurally, this country, it's divided along racial lines.
01:47Fauzi says the bigger question is where the BNPN partnership and Malay politics go from here.
01:53With the Malay population growing faster than the non-Malay population,
01:57its electoral influence will strengthen.
02:01But Fauzi adds,
02:02Ultimately, it depends on what form of Islamic politics emerges.
02:06Pluralist Islamism could strengthen a multiracial democracy,
02:11while extremism could pull it in the opposite direction.
02:14It's a choice the Malaysian voter has to make.
02:18Amadeep Gill, FMT.
Comments