The Interplay of Race, Religion and Royalty in Contemporary Malaysian Politics

What is it about?

This chapter presents an overview of how race, religion and royalty are routinely encountered in the country’s politics, particularly over the last decade.

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Why is it important?

The past decade or so has seen political fortunes of the opposition, defined here as parties that oppose BN whether separately or together in coalitions during general elections, progressively improving, culminating in Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) trouncing of BN in the fourteenth general elections (GE14) in 2018. However, in Malaysian politics, elected politicians do not by themselves fill all political gaps. In uncertain times, as have prevailed in Malaysia since Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s (PPBM) betrayal of PH in February 2020, the Malay monarchy has become more important than ever in deciding who and which political coalition gets to form the country’s executive branch.