THE BATTLE OF THREE POLITICAL REGIMES IN MALAYSIA PRIOR AND POST GE 14TH: AN ANALYSIS OF BARISAN NASIONAL, PAKATAN HARAPAN & THE FORMATION OF PERIKATAN NASIONAL (PN)

Abstract

This chapter discusses the battle of the three political regimes in Malaysia, the Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH), in the 14th General Election and the formation of Perikatan Nasional (PN) after the collapse of the PH government. The BN coalition has shown its political influence throughout 63 years of ruling the country since independence which has been hard to break by other opposition parties in Malaysia. BN has manipulated various government instruments in ruling to form a strong political hegemony that affects the voting behaviour of voters in determining rational choice, especially when elections are conducted. However, the strong political domination has been broken by the opposition movement that began in the 12th General Election that eventually toppled the old political regime, BN in the last GE-14. The failure of BN to defend its position as a government is due to several factors including scandals and misuse of power by political leaders, the weaknesses of the government in addressing economic issues, and pressures faced by the people on the cost of living, and limited employment opportunities. Issues that arise are then manipulated by the opposition parties at the same time, which managed to convince voters to change their support from BN to PH in the last GE-14. However, PH, which then had the opportunity to govern the country with a dilemma, as it failed to capitalize on the opportunity and fulfilled its manifesto as promised in their election campaigns. Subsequently, Malaysians, especially the voters in a series of by-election have begun to send a message to the government by voting for opposition candidates as a gesture of protest against the PH government. Furthermore, an analysis of the developments and dilemmas of the direction of the two political regimes before and after the GE-14 is discussed in detail in this chapter.