Malaysia - Politics

At elections in April 1995, the National Front was returned with a substantially increased majority. United Malays’ National Organisation (UMNO), with 88 seats, was the dominant party in the coalition which also included Malaysian Chinese Association (30), Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (13), Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (seven), Malaysian Indian Congress (six) and Sarawak United People’s Party (six). The opposition included Democratic Action Party (nine), Parti Bersatu Sabah (eight) and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS, seven).

In August 1998 Dr Mahathir Mohamad sacked his deputy prime minister and finance minister, Anwar Ibrahim, who was subsequently arrested under the detention-without-trial Internal Security Act for holding a political protest gathering without a police permit. He was also charged on several counts of sexual misconduct and abuse of power, charges he denied and said stemmed from a conspiracy to remove him. Anwar was found guilty of corruption in April 1999 and sentenced to six years in prison. In August 2000, he was found guilty of sodomy and sentenced to a further nine years’ imprisonment.

In June 1999, opposition parties led by Anwar’s wife Wan Azizah Ismail and her new National Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Nasional) formed the Alternative Front (including PAS, Democratic Action Party and Malaysian People’s Party), calling for political liberalisation and an end to repressive laws. However, when the elections were held in November 1999, the ruling National Front coalition scored a decisive victory with 148 seats, and the combined opposition parties took 42 seats. PAS won control of the oil-rich state of Terengganu and easily retained its hold on Kelantan and, for the first time, assumed leadership of the opposition in parliament. Wan Azizah won the seat of her husband’s former constituency in Penang.

The Alternative Front was, however, divided over the PAS’s plan to establish an Islamic state should the Alternative Front win the next elections due by January 2005. Divisions deepened when the party announced it would introduce Islamic law in Terengganu, and subsequently, in July 2002, lost ground to UMNO in by-elections in Kedah State.

In his closing speech to the UMNO annual congress in June 2002, 76 year-old Mahathir announced his retirement, but subsequently agreed to continue as prime minister until October 2003, when his deputy, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, duly succeeded him as UMNO leader and prime minister.

In an early general election in March 2004, the National Front coalition received a strong mandate to proceed with reforms proposed by the new PM, including action against corruption. It took 195 seats in the federal parliament, regaining Terengganu and conceding only one state, Kelantan, by a small margin to the PAS. The combined opposition parties won 21 seats, with Democratic Action Party (DAP, 12) ahead of PAS (seven).

In September 2004 Anwar’s conviction for sodomy was quashed by the Federal Court and he was released from prison. Then his appeal against his conviction for corruption was rejected, confirming his exclusion from parliament until 2008.

The Sultan of Terengganu, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, became Yang di-Pertuan Agong in December 2006.

In the March 2008 elections, the ruling National Front faced a united opposition at both national and state levels. Although it won in 7 of the 12 states contested and took 140 of 222 seats – and 50.3% of votes – in the federal parliament, it was National Front’s worst performance since 1969 and the first time the coalition had failed to attain the two-thirds parliamentary majority required to enact constitutional changes. Opposition parties took 82 seats (46.8% of votes). Abdullah was returned as prime minister. In April 2008 three opposition parties that had worked together in the election, DAP, PAS and the People’s Justice Party, formed a coalition, Pakatan Rakyat.

His ban from politics having expired, former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was elected to parliament in a by-election in August 2008 and became leader of Pakatan Rakyat.

In April 2009 Abdullah stood down as prime minister and UMNO leader. His deputy, Najib Razak (the son of the second prime minister of Malaysia, Abdul Razak), who had been chosen to lead UMNO at the party’s general assembly, was sworn in as prime minister.