7 - Reformasi and New Politics: Constituting an Alternative Coalition in the 1999 General Election

Summary

By the time of Malaysia's 10th general election of 1999, there had been two major ruptures in the hegemonic Malay bloc led by UMNO, which I have already discussed in previous chapters. The first was the Tunku's departure from politics after the 13 May riots and the rise of UMNO's young second echelon of leaders who counted among them the irrepressible Mahathir Mohamad, while the second was the 1987 crisis causing the UMNO split and the formation of two new parties, a New UMNO party (UMNO Baru) and the Spirit of 46 party (Semangat 46). This chapter will deal with the third rupture of the Malay bloc caused by the imbroglio around Anwar Ibrahim that erupted in 1998 after his removal from UMNO and as deputy premier. It is interesting to note that all three of these ruptures involved Mahathir. There was great anticipation after this third major rupture, especially in intellectual circles, that such a major crack in the hegemonic edifice of UMNO would augur a real change in Malaysian politics, and much hope was thus placed on a regime change of sorts to be brought about after the 1999 general election. Malaysia had arrived, as it were, at a crucial political crossroads with the eruption of the Reformasi Movement after Anwar's sacking and what many saw as his unjust incarceration on the charge of sodomy. In terms of the larger framing of Malaysian politics, it also seemed an opportune time for social activists to work towards debunking the debilitating model of ethnically overdetermined politics. Indeed, as noted in the previous chapter, the New Economic Policy (NEP, 1971–90) had been brought to a close with the implementation of the National Development Policy (NDP, 1990–2000). The latter, along with the Vision 2020 policy, generated much anticipation that multi-ethnic new politics would take centre stage, especially when the government's stated principal goal was the creation of a Bangsa Malaysia (Malaysian nation).

However, as also noted in the previous chapter, the BN's electoral strategy remained one of mediated communalism, allowing for path dependent success in the elections of 1990 and 1995 in spite of the major split within the UMNO ruling bloc in 1987.