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This book analyses Malaysian media from the Jurgen Habermas’ perspectives of “the public sphere” especially from the aspects of bourgeois public sphere, mass press, the commercialisation of the press and refeudalisation. Malaysia has also faced all of those aspects. However, the highlight of this book is the process called defeudalisation. The 2008 General Election has shown that a new public sphere of cyberspace or the Internet and the mobile phone was accessed and utilised significantly and was enough to be used by the opposition in influencing the public to vote them. It became one of the major factors in determining the result of the election which is for the first time the opposit...
The prediction is that the 14th General Election (14thGE) is coming earlier than when it should be, as early as March 2017, instead of May 2018. On the one hand, with the DAP-led opposition in disarray for the last 18 months, since the departure of PAS, and on the other, the UMNO-led BN becoming more resolved and combative, the events leading to the forthcoming election promises more fireworks. The complexity of facts, fictions, perceptions and perspectives in making sense of the forthcoming 14thGE are intricate. “The present book, Democracy at Work, edited by Prof. Azizuddin and Dr. Ummu Atiyah of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), provides an essential critical backdrop to build an informed understanding of what to expect from the 14thGE based on the 13 chapters of the book on the highly confusing but sometimes entertaining 13thGE. An added bonus is that the chapters are written not by the usual crop of opinionated ‘tired’ scholars but largely a fresh crop of serious and bright ones. The book is a must read for Malaysianists who enjoy talking, studying and making opinions on the ever complicated Malaysian politics, beyond the ambit of the mamak shops.”
On 7 December 2014, a group of 25 prominent Malays (G25) issued an open call for moderate Malays and Muslims to speak out against the hate speeches targeted at non-Muslims by supremacist groups. They stressed that the extremist and intolerant voices do not speak for the general Muslim community, and they called for a review of Shariah law and civil law to be in line with the supremacy of the Federal Constitution. Will it be possible to arrest these destructive forces that are taking control of the future wellbeing of Malaysia? The G25 hopes it would, and that this book will bring greater awareness of the dangers that are tearing apart Malaysian's social fabric. In this important volume, 22 l...
This book attempts to analyse the concept of religious expression vis-à-vis freedom of speech in Malaysia from the philosophical, political and theoretical perspectives. It begins by discussing the major sources of religious expression that are firmly rooted in the societal and religious beliefs, constitution and legislation of the country. It also examines multiple facets of the Islamization policy in the country and to what extent such policy affects the exercise of domestic religious expression. The problems and challenges of domestic religious expression, theoretically and practically, will also be examined including the issues of radicalization and terrorism. After a change of power fr...
This book presents a comprehensive, full-length analysis of the uses of media and communication technologies by different social actors in Malaysia. Drawing upon recent case studies - from films to political advertising - it provides valuable insights into the ways in which different media forms have negotiated with the dominant cultural representations of Malaysian society.
The Roots of Resilience examines governance from the ground up in the world's two most enduring electoral authoritarian or "hybrid" regimes—Singapore and Malaysia—where politically liberal and authoritarian features are blended to evade substantive democracy. Although skewed elections, curbed civil liberties, and a dose of coercion help sustain these regimes, selectively structured state policies and patronage, partisan machines that effectively stand in for local governments, and diligently sustained clientelist relations between politicians and constituents are equally important. While key attributes of these regimes differ, affecting the scope, character, and balance among national pa...
In Political Party Financing and Electoral Politics in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, Babayo Sule provides a detailed analysis of the process of political party financing in Nigeria from 1999 to the present. Sule links the party financing process with the electoral process and explores issues of democratic accountability, transparency, and corruption in Nigeria under democratic rule. Issues of excessive spending, violation of legal procedures for party financing and monitoring of parties’ activities, particularly, finances are explored. The book presents an analytical discourse on elections and processes that influence an election in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic in which party financing and money politics are instrumental. This book observes how political corruption gains root in the process of party financing and builds a theory linking party financing, electoral politics, and democratic accountability. This book provides practical policy implications for strengthening Nigeria’s electoral process and transparency in its democracy.
Beginning in 2005 as a small electoral reform initiative, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, known as Bersih, became the most prominent social movement in Malaysia. Based on participant observation approach and first-hand interviews with key actors, this book examines how Bersih became a movement that aggregated the collective grievance of Malaysians and brought Malaysian sociopolitical activism to a new level. This book makes a major contribution to the scholarly work on social movement theories in the Southeast Asian context and to the growing literature on social movements and democratization.
This book argues that Malaysia's electoral politics have historically been premised on a hybridized model of communalism and consociationalism. Beyond this it posits a newer idea of power sharing based on the dynamic and transformative practice of mediated communalism through six decades (1952-2016) of electoral politics. The strategy of mediating communalism is critically explored throughout the book, serving to test its saliency as a distinct approach to power sharing in a social formation which is ethnically, religiously and regionally divided, yet has remained remarkably and tenuously integrated throughout Malaysia's electoral history. The book delves into this question by narrating and theorizing the complexity of communal politics leading to the emergence of new politics which have attempted to put Malaysia on the track of further democratization. It is further implied that new politics has to work in tandem with mediated communalism to transcend the most deleterious effects of an ethnically divided society.