Rushed reforms could trigger backlash against Harapan, says don

Pakatan Harapan's fast and furious approach towards implementing policy reforms after taking over Putrajaya could trigger a backlash against the administration, a political analyst said today.

William Case, who heads the School of Politics, History and International Relations at the University of Nottingham’s Malaysian campus, said this was because Harapan risks upsetting parties affected by its reform initiatives that included various cost-cutting measures.

"Often times (with) parties that come into power, they are tempted to go too far and too fast in their reforms.

"And so when the parties began to tread on the toes of threatened elites, they then perhaps began to spring back and overturn the new democracy," Case said at a public talk titled, "Post GE-14 Conference: Making Democracy Deliver" which was held at Universiti Malaya today.

As an example, Case cited the backlash against former Philippines president Corazon Aquino over the land reform policy introduced in the late 1980s to redistribute farming lands previously held by ruling elites under the authoritarian rule of Ferdinand Marcos.

"So go ahead and sack the civil servants, cancel all the state contracts, dismantle the New Economic Policy, go ahead and turn your back on China.

"Do all these things and do them quickly, then see what happens to you guys (Harapan),” said Case.

"I think you have to be careful in the pace and the extent of such changes," he further cautioned.

The Harapan government is at the moment removing non-essential political appointees in the civil service and reviewing several mega projects, including the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) which is backed by China.

There are no reported plans to abolish the New Economic Policy.

‘Malaysia a democracy outlier'

Case, who has been observing Malaysian politics for over 30 years, also noted how the country had always been a political outlier.

He pointed out that BN as a formal coalition first formed the government in 1974 and continued to rule the country as an "electoral authoritarian" regime up until GE14.

Case noted that between 1974 and the early 2000s, more than 70 countries around the world became a democracy. 

However, he said the trend has now reversed and more people around the world are being forced to live in a democratic recession.

With this global context in mind, Case said the outcome of GE14 continues to place Malaysia as an outlier as a majority of the electorate chose to vote out BN.

"Some people call it the process of democratisation by elections.

"This is encouraging and most unusual," said Case. He pointed out that many regime changes across the globe had happened beyond the ballot box or triggered uprisings and military rule.

In the days leading up to the May 9 polls, Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad had expressed fears that then-premier Najib Abdul Razak would not facilitate a smooth transition of power in the event of BN's loss.

Najib, however, accepted BN's shocking defeat to Harapan and eventually resigned from his position as Umno president to pave way for a new party leadership.

The conference today was organised by Imagined Malaysia - a local group that runs an alternative history project - in co-operation with the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas). - Mkini