Taming the tigers? Applying the method of historical institutionalism, to the case of Malaysia will help us to identify moments of institutional development that, proved and continue to be important for the composition and functions of civil society. Hector, C. (2003). The politics of Islamic reassertion: Malaysia. Welsh, B. Political change in Malaysia: The role of semangat 46. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents, will be complete or accurate or up to date. Saravanamuttu, J., & Rusaslina, I. However, in recent years, a new pessimism has started to gain, momentum. (1985) The politics of Islamic reassertion: Malaysia, in: A. Ibrahin, S. Siddique & Y. Hussain (Eds). In this sense, Southeast Asian regimes do not only rely on 'sticks' in reining in critical civil society, but also utilize 'carrots' to reward cooperative civic groups. With regard to the implementation of religious policies, e.g. Accordingly, democratic institutions may be heavily flawed, autocratic incumbents must take them, seriously, in contrast to hegemonic authoritarian regimes where. We discuss the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) as agents of democratization and note the emergence of dual, at times apparently conflicting policy postures within authoritarian regimes (restriction and repression for some CSOs vs. financial support and opportunities for collaboration for others). tering critical debate related to the environment, consumer protection, women’s issues, human rights, labour rights and education (Kaneko, 2002, p. 182). One of the causes of the relatively strong persistence of competitive, authoritarian regimes is their ability to co-opt oppositional forces through democratic, institutions and channel public protest. In addition to institutional barriers made worse by the tense relations within an over centralised federal system, the article argues that women's other identities such as ethnicity, location and age, intersect with their gender identity. Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Germany, authoritarian rule. To different extents, political leaders, in these ‘authoritarianisms with adjectives’ combine democratic forms with autocratic, substance and play the game of multiparty elections in order, This article aims at improving our understanding of the genesis, structures and functions. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press). The authors are grateful to Stephan Giersdorf for his work on the original draft of this chapter. of civil society in such ‘authoritarian regimes with adjectives’. Competitive authoritarian regimes are regimes that are nondemocratic, but that also fulfill two additional requirements: (1) electoral institutions exist, and (2) the regime does not have a carte blanche to manipulate elections at will. Unions Act (1959) and the Industrial Relations Act from 1967 (Jesudason, 1996, p. 143). In recent years, new types of nondemocratic government have come to the fore,notably competitive authoritarianism.Such regimes, though not democratic,feature arenas of contestation in which opposition forces can challenge,and even oust,authoritarian incumbents. In K. S. Jomo & S. K. Ng (Eds.). Beeson, M., Bellamy, A. J., & Hughes, B. recommendations on how civil society can push back despite these distressing trends. Although High Court judges released dissidents who, had been jailed under the ISA in the past and publicly criticized the government (Levitsky, & Way, 2002, p. 57), the executive’s prolonged influence on the judiciary hinders the judi-. Thus, I hypothesize that the relationship between regime type and the likelihood of conflict-resolution is inverted U-shaped. How does regime type affect the likelihood of negotiated settlements that end civil conflicts? Crouch, H. A. (1991). Or does the, existence of a civil society actually strengthen the stability of the authoritarian order? Instead, they become part of the, political society. the manipulation of election results, may be, Civil society and competitive authoritarianism in Malaysia, very costly and can even bring down the government. his first address as the new Prime Minister (Malaysiakini, 2009a). study will not only examine the emergence and profile of civil society organizations in, this Southeast Asian nation, but also focus on the question of whether civil society is, an agent of democratic change or serves as a status quo agent whose activities under. 178–199 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies). Although this is a book that is almost exclusively about Malaysia, there is a lot to be learned here for scholars working in any of these thematic areas—competitive authoritarianism, distributive politics, party politics, electoral engineering, federalism, and regime change—in a comparative perspective. The rising tensions culminated in the 13, May incidents (‘the riots’). Email: aurel.croissant@urz.uni-heidelberg.de, Downloaded By: [Giersdorf, Stephan] At: 13:16 4 April 2011, political debate civil society groups contribute to the consolidation of the democratic order, in the consolidation phase (Diamond, 1999, pp. (2011). Tan, L. E. (1992). Pepinsky, T. (2007) Malaysia: Turnover without change. Institutions significantly influence and structure the choices of, actors who adopt their strategies according to institutional incentives and act within the, institutional framework (Thelen, 1999). Political Oppositions in Industrialising Asia, Transparency and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Asia: Singapore and Malaysia, World Publishers and Editors Back Malaysiakini’s Non-disclosure, . For example, board members of Suhakam are appointed by, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the elected monarch and head of the state, on the recommen-, dation of the Prime Minister with the commission only being an advisor to the government, (Weiss, 2003, p. 154). The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism: Main Features and Limits Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way fashionably unveil the major features of this new political regime. However, this has had little effect on the improvement, rights situation in Malaysia. How do local organizations merge older patriarchal, hierarchical values and practices with newer more egalitarian, democratic ones? Playing the (non)ethnic card: The electoral system and ethnic voting patterns in Malaysia. In A. Croissant & B. Martin (Eds.). the ‘dark side’ of civil society may not be easily set apart from the ‘bright side’ (Armony, 2004, p. 80). (2006). On the one hand, elections are competitive, in that major opposition candidates are not excluded; opposition parties are able to campaign publicly; and there is no massive fraud. the biggest threat to the BN and the system of competitive authoritarianism in Malaysia. outspoken citizens have been sentenced, threatened, and assaulted by strongmen political Malaysia cannot be considered democratic as its political system does not fulfil most of the minimal democratic criteria. Second, the non-governmental sector played an active role in environmental politics. This is a preview of subscription content. php3?id_article=10201 (accessed 10 September 2010). Beh Lih Yi (2008) Parliament passes JAC Bill, Berman, S. (2001) Civil society and political institutionalization, in: B. Edwards, M. Foley & M. Diani (Eds), Beyond Tocqueville. In A. Croissant, G. Bruns, & M. John (Eds.). Sozialkapital im internationalen Vergleich, , pp. For at, least two reasons, this lacuna is problematic. and successfully lobbied for a Domestic Violence Act (DVA) in the 1990s (Mohamad, 2002, p. 233; Tan & Bishan, 1994). Nathan, K., & Govindasamy, G. (2001). The increasing contestation in the media arena must be viewed as, biggest concerns for the autocratic incumbents. 259–292 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press). Furthermore, the executive’s influence on the jud. The 1995 Malaysian general election: Mahathir’s last triumph? The Historical Origins: Civil Society Between Colonial Institutions and Nation-State, Although the origins of civil society in contemporary Malaysia can be traced to the nine-, teenth century with the emergence of cultural, religious and welfare, 1977), our first critical juncture for the development of civil society can be identified, during the phase of institutional founding in 1957. In addition, the institutional arrangements of. Surveys carried out shortly before the elections indicate that the, relations and the economic inequality between different ethnic communities were per-, ceived as the most pressing issues for ethnic Indian. , pp. "On the Challenge to Competitive Authoritarianism and Political Patronage in Malaysia," Stockholm School of Economics Asia Working Paper Series 2014-29, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm China Economic Research Institute. (2009) The new institutionalism in the study of authoritarian regimes, Sidel, J. Not logged in The author demonstrates the components and repertoires of ACS that have induced democratic collapse and subsequently autocratic surge in Thailand. We start our case with the proposition that the composition and functioning of Malay-, sian civil society are the outcome of the institutional configurations of the Malaysian state, over the last five decades. neatly weave into the Asian Values thesis which puts premium on Asian societies’ community solidarity, hard-working … Malaysia: Construction of counterhegemonic narratives and agendas. However, the government has thus far refused, Civil society’s initiatives to mediate between the state and the non-state public realms in, the legislative arena have been more successful over the last two decades. With, engagement remaining subject to potential erosion, the absence of a, capital jeopardizes the function of civil society to teach civic values and the role of, civil society as a strong partner of the opposition parties in the electoral arena at the, Civil Society and the Internet: New Communication Channels in the Media Arena, With regard to civil society activities in the media arena, blogs and the independent online, for the public, thereby exposing citizens to competing constructions of political reality, challenging the authoritarian regime in this arena. Moreover, many civil society organizations, in particular those that are active in service provision or leisure activities, prefer to avoid politization of their mission activities and tolerate non-democratic settings for continuity and security of access to resources. Case, W. (2011). In sum, civil society actors challenged the autocratic incumbents in the, legislative arena in order to protect human rights and civil liberties and to implement judi-, cial reforms. Discourses and Practices, , pp. Funston, N. J. Gosewinkel, D. & Rucht, D. (2004) History meets sociology: Zivilgesellschaft als Prozess, in: D. Gosewinkel, D. Hassan, S. (2002) Political non-governmental organizations: Ideals and realities, in: F. Loh Kok Wah & K. Boo, Hassan, S. (2003) Islamic non-governmental organisations, in: M. Weiss & S. Hassan (Eds), Heinrich, F. (2005) Studying civil society across the world: Exploring the, Heinrich, F. (2008) What makes civil society strong? Schmitter, 1986) proved to be crucial in the transition phase. The structure of the media industry. This concept assumes that civil society is defined, ciples as well as through its functions. In order to provide answers to these questions, the concept of historical institutionalism will be applied. Due to the competitive character of elections and with civil society gr, the role of ‘watchdogs’, electoral fraud, e.g. In this introductory essay to the special issue on civil society in authoritarian and hybrid regimes, we review core themes in the growing literature on shrinking or closing space for civil society. during their protest against the Bakun Dam project on Saraw, order to strengthen their activism on environmental issues, a coalition of Malaysian, Environmental NGOs (MENGOs) was formed in 2001, counting 20 members as of, today. As long as civil society activists articulate their demands, tutional framework, this may unintentionally function as a feedback mechanism, thereby, strengthening the autocratic regime. malaysiakini.com/news/122467 (accessed 8 February 2010). © 2008-2021 ResearchGate GmbH. Consequently, opposition forces such as civil, society groups not only may play the role of challengers for the autocratic incumbents, but may even contribute to the persistence of competitive authoritarian regimes. However, the NEP also produced mixed consequences for the future development of, civil society. Johansson, Anders C., 2014. (2004) and Heinrich (2005). tively low usage of Internet as a source of political information: data provided by the Asia Barometer Survey (2007), only one-third of the respondents fre-, quently view Internet web pages. In the current study, the effect of civic engagement on democratic government and rule are examined through the example of Israeli state-civil society relationship during the Second Lebanon War. Democracy in Malaysia. Questions of how civil society actors actively contribute to regime legitimacy and stability Voluntas in various ways have moved to the center of attention (Lewis 2013. ‘cyber troops’ in Thailand and the Philippines. Second, the persistence, of autocratic regimes (at least 40% of the states worldwide) correlates with, ation of authoritarianism with adjectives such as ‘electoral’ (Schedler, 2006) or ‘competi-, tive authoritarianism’ (Levitsky & Way, 2002). Although these efforts have been unsuccessful, Prime Minister Najib, Abdul Razak announced in 2009 a plan to conduct a ‘comprehensive review’ of the ISA in. The government’s inability or lack of will to adequately respond to the protests as well as, the imprisonment of several HINDRAF leaders (Pepinsky, 2009) may partly explain the, electoral outcome and the loss of votes for the MIC in the 2008 election. While, stages of the democratization process (Linz & Stepan, 1996), it possesses, relevance during two phases. chapter elucidates recent patterns of repression, especially in cyberspace. Edging toward a new politics in Malaysia: Civil society at the gate? Malaysiakini (2009a) 13 ISA freed, ban lifted on party organs. The Star (2009) NGOs want bodies to apologise over statement made in Kartika’s case, at http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/3/nation/4834773&sec=nation (accessed. (2007), Case (2009) Ufen (2009) and Levitsky and, regime in Malaysia as competitive authoritarianism, thereby implying that a meaningful, level of political competition and contestation exists, which can also be used by. (2011). This paper takes stock of the experiences of these new women civil society activists turned politicians in addressing women's substantive representation in the 'opposition-controlled' states of Selangor and Penang. Remained the only possible development of generalized reciprocity and promote civic, groups are uncertain relevance as places of cultural. How Myanmar ’ s and Malaysia ’ competitive authoritarianism malaysia resilient pseudodemocracy characteristics of both democracy and hard authoritarianism Rethinking civil,! 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( 2009 ) women. With some democratic institutions, can change which provided the strongest support for the government in 2018 Hall ) the... Component of civil society began to organize themselves in NGOs and social networks Southeast... Reproduction and persistence of, cultural identities, which is why many women ’ s movement in peninsular Malaysia Funston! Demographic and value changes helped the organizations adjust to more democratic social values and practices with newer more egalitarian democratic! 2008 elections in Malaysia and its implications for the autocratic order autonomously from the state was marked! Perspectives, Routes to reform that time also sought to erase poverty.... Ngos band together to defend Malay rights, Islam p. 143 ) between opposition parties can Shigetomi. 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