In a commentary, SMU Assistant Professor of Political Science Jeremy Siow and Elvin Ong, Assistant Professor at NUS, opined that the challenge for Malaysia isn’t just implementing reforms, but also navigating an ideological split. They noted that there are two contending visions of democracy in Malaysia – one that demands equal rights for all citizens, and one that infuses democracy with the preservation of the traditional Malay-Muslim status quo. They stressed that in the longer term, unresolved conflict between these two visions of democracy means intensifying political conflict and institutional stasis in Malaysia. Citing their June survey of 2,200 Malaysians aged 25 to 40, they noted that Malay respondents ranked political stability as their third most important attribute of democracy and equal rights last, while non-Malay respondents ranked equal rights regardless of race and religion third. They said that politicians and political parties that wish to generate broad popular support for institutional reforms to enhance democracy in Malaysia have a tricky task. The authors added that political parties must convince their own supporters that the reforms are substantively pro-democracy enough to be worthy of their support, but not to the extent that they upset the political status quo of Malay bumiputera special rights and dominance.
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