ELECTIONS in Malaysia are normally predictable. In fact,the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and various allies had won all of them since 1955, until this week. Over the years UMNO has resorted to every conceivable trick to remain in power: stirring communal tensions among Malaysia’s ethnic groups, or locking up critics,rigging the electoral system in its favour, bribing voters with populist handouts and threatening chaos whether it lost. In the run-up to the election on May 9th it did all of that. It was testimony to the awfulness of the government of Najib Razak that the opposition was even in contention. And it is testimony to the righteous sense of Malaysian voters that the opposition won, and convincingly,paving the way for Malaysia’s first ever change of government (see article).
For a country where politics has always been run along communal lines, the...
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Source: economist.com