The Politics of Manipulation: Malaysia 2018-2020

Abstract

The 14th General Election (GE-14) held on May 9, 2018, ended the
61-year uninterrupted rule of the Barisan Nasional (National Front, BN), since
the nation’s independence in 1957. The ruling coalition lost to the opposition
coalition, Pakatan Harapan (PH). The BN lost the power despite all the trickeries
used by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. Mahathir Mohamad manipulated and
lured the opposition coalition and was sworn in as the seventh Prime Minister
of Malaysia. However, after 22 months, Mahathir resigned, and succeeded by
a new National Alliance. The 2018-2020 crises were triggered by personalities
and their political manoeuvrings. This study brings political manipulation to
the fore to explain the dramatic political transitions in Malaysia resulting from
the general elections held in 2018, and the dramatic change in the political
landscape two years after the GE-14. It provides a systematic overview of the
electoral process and an assessment of how manipulation shaped the country’s
political environment. The study is based on a mixture of media studies, library
research, and weeks of fieldwork conducting focus group interviews with party
activists across Malaysia both before and after the 2018 election. Some of the
actors who were affected by this politics of manipulation were interviewed.