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Malaysia
This Week in AsiaOpinion
Kean Wong
Kean Wong

Asian Angle | Anxieties about Mahathir’s new Malaysia go deeper than race

  • Malaysia’s biggest rally this year was ostensibly about a UN treaty on racial discrimination
  • But other issues are stoking the anger, too, not least among them the stalling economy

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Some 80,000 people attended the December 8 rally in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: EPA
Kean Wong
On December 8, in Malaysia’s biggest rally this year, 80,000 people gathered in Kuala Lumpur to protest against what many alleged were grave threats against the country’s dominant Malay community. Some estimates say the numbers eclipsed the crowds during the historic general elections in May, which resulted in the first regime change since Malaysia’s independence more than 60 years ago.

Last weekend, the mostly ethnic Malay-Muslim crowds blocked several major city thoroughfares to hear leaders from the opposition Islamist party PAS and the former ruling party Umno (United Malays National Organisation) rail against the new federal government. The speakers and the banners of this “Himpunan 812” rally reflected a deep anxiety about the “new Malaysia”, and warned against the threats facing the country’s majority Malay community, ostensibly through ratifying the United Nations’ International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

Controversy over ratifying ICERD has been building since it was raised by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah at this year’s UN General Assembly. The opposition has mounted a potent fear campaign over the convention’s alleged threats against Malay and Muslim rights enshrined in Malaysia’s constitution.

With Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan government struggling to meet the huge expectations of promised reforms to address stagnant wages and soaring costs of living, and the government’s first budget constrained by Malaysia’s lacklustre economy, the euphoria over regime change has vanished and the government’s foes have stoked old anxieties over race and religion.

Malaysia’s opposition has mounted a potent fear campaign over ICERD’s alleged threats against Malay and Muslim rights enshrined in the country’s constitution. Photo: EPA
Malaysia’s opposition has mounted a potent fear campaign over ICERD’s alleged threats against Malay and Muslim rights enshrined in the country’s constitution. Photo: EPA
For a once-dominant party like Umno, the rally was its biggest opportunity to vault back into relevance amid ongoing legal troubles and outrage over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, centred on former prime minister Najib Razak, his wife Rosmah Mansor, and other top party leaders now mired in corruption charges. For PAS chief Hadi Awang and his conservative clerics, the rally was another opportunity for the party to claim an exclusive Malay-Muslim leadership beyond its stronghold of two small northern states.
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