On May 9, Malaysia's political canvas was redrawn with a single election. By returning the 92-year-old Mahathir Mohamad to the job of prime minister, voters ended 61 years of uninterrupted rule by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). Within days, the ousted incumbent, Najib Razak, was under investigation for corruption, and the long-jailed opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, was back in politics.
Astonishingly, no blood was spilled in this "silent revolution." While that might seem like a low bar, the lack of violence is noteworthy in a country split along religious, ethnic, and linguistic lines. But while Malaysians continue to celebrate their peaceful democratic transition, a key question remains: Can multiparty democracy flourish in such a divided society?
UMNO led Malaysia with a vision of empowering ethnic-majority Malays. It went on to form a centrist bloc with ethnic Chinese and Indian minority parties and negotiated the country's independence from Britain in 1957. Paradoxically, by monopolising the centrist position, the UMNO-led coalition soon became vulnerable to electoral attacks by Malay- and non-Malay-based opposition.
Wong Chin-Huat is a political scientist at the Penang Institute in Malaysia.
By the 1969 election, UMNO's status as the sole political representative of Malays was threatened. The first-past-the-post electoral system concealed the exodus of numerous Malay voters from the UMNO-led coalition to the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). Meanwhile, despite failing to increase their overall level of support, Chinese-based opposition parties increased their seat count, as the system rewarded them for better electoral coordination.
The election outcome distorted the actual electoral swing and fueled Malay fears that their political dominance through UMNO had been weakened. As a result, ethnic riots erupted, effectively ending the country's brief experiment with multiparty democracy.
Into this void rose Abdul Razak Hussein, Mr Najib's father, who restored UMNO's hegemony by strengthening privileges for ethnic Malays and luring opposition parties -- including PAS -- into a new coalition, called the National Front (BN). While Abdul Razak permitted elections to gain a patina of legitimacy, his nods to democracy were largely window dressing. But even a virtual one-party state could not contain the agenda-setting power of a hardened opposition, namely PAS, which lost its home base, Kelantan, to UMNO after eight years of political cohabitation. UMNO's call for "Malay unity" rendered all Malay-based opposition parties illegitimate by default, and PAS responded with a powerful narrative of Muslim nationalism.
That was the year Mr Mahathir came to power (he first served as prime minister from July 1981 until October 2003). He responded to PAS's challenge by building up Islamic universities, banking systems, and bureaucracy, but he opposed the expansion of Sharia law, drawing a line between modernist and conservative strands of Islam.
UMNO's repression of the opposition has had the unintended consequence that the party gradually had to abandon its secular-nationalist politics and enter an Islamisation race with PAS. Eventually, conservatives gained, and by 2013, 86% of Malaysian Muslims supported making Sharia the basis of official law.
After surviving a near-miss in the 2013 poll, Mr Najib enticed PAS to revive its Sharia expansion agenda in Kelantan, where it had regained control in 1990. This led PAS to break with the opposition and seek to siphon votes from Mr Mahathir's new coalition, Pakatan Harapan (PH). But, as the recent election results make clear, Mr Najib and PAS miscalculated. Although PAS prevailed in Kelantan and Terengganu states, it was nearly wiped out on the mainland's west coast.
Despite the PH victory, PAS remains a viable opposition force and will continue to push for the expansion of Sharia. In fact, post-election popularity aside, PH is far weaker than it appears. After all, it won only a simple majority; once opposition parties finish licking their wounds from this month's results, new alliances may pressure the incumbents from all sides.
Despite this, there is no doubt that Malaysia's democracy has arrived at an important juncture. As a new dawn breaks on Malaysia's political landscape, the country must seize this chance to establish a viable model for multiparty competition, where politicians can lead on national issues rather than pander to religious, ethnic, or regional constituencies. - PROJECT SYNDICATE