Abstract
This chapter investigates the strategies employed, for over two decades, by a smart authoritarian Malaysian leader—Mahathir bin Mohamad—to ensure his office tenure amid the discontents of the opposition and grassroots communities and civil society. It is argued here that the extractive institutional economic rhetoric, and the rentier alike, which distributed rent among Mahathir’s party’s alliance of the winning coalitions (political and business elites, and ethnic groups), consolidated his political durability. This form of institutional economics buttressed, on the one hand, his prowess in purging and circumventing internal and external challengers; on the other, it embraced modernisation, which instilled the nationalistic notion that cultivated his populist-inspired political charisma. Unlike the fates of other authoritarian and dictatorial rulers after their regimes collapsed—resignation, imprisonment and, in some cases, death—Mahathir Mohamad, who ruled the country for over two decades (1981–2003) and, after an interval of 15 years, returned to power (2018–Feb. 2020), has long been a smart strongman in the region. He was able to opt out from his powerful position without facing critical challenges, and was able to return to power through his sophisticated rhetoric. The focus here is mainly, but not exclusively, on his initial lengthy tenure in office, during which his strategy was no doubt influenced by the fates of his authoritarian counterparts in the region. However, his manoeuvring to remain in power was also at the expense of the opposition, civil society and other marginalised groups. The discontents of the latter were tightly controlled by the repressive acts that had been employed even before Mahathir’s prime ministership. The disgruntled grassroots communities and civil society organisations sought to secure positive responses from the regime through institutional means, such as filing lawsuits to courts, and by staging open protests. These actions were not always beneficial; the disgruntled experienced a mixture of responses from the regime. The regime’s decisions to deploy either repressive or concessive measures were rationally calculated against the regime’s (electoral) legitimacy.
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(Source Author’s compilation from various sources)
(Source extracted from Gomez [2014])
(Source The World Bank [2020])
(Source The World Bank [2020])
Notes
- 1.
Mainly consists of UMNO, MCA (Malay-Chinese Association), MIC (Malayan Indian Congress), Gerakan and PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) parties.
- 2.
A position that allows an incumbent or office holder to gain benefits or seek rent from either private or government budget.
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Young, S. (2021). A Smart Electoral Authoritarian Leader and Discontents in Malaysia. In: Strategies of Authoritarian Survival and Dissensus in Southeast Asia. Palgrave Series in Asia and Pacific Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6112-6_6
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