Protest and Possibilities: Civil Society and Coalitions for Political Change in Malaysia

by Meredith L. Weiss

Protest and Possibilities explores the pursuit of political reform in Malaysia, an illiberal democracy, and contrasts coalition-building and reform processes there with those of electoral authoritarian Indonesia. The study considers the roles of civil society agents (CSAs) in promoting alternative (especially noncommunal) political norms and helping to find common ground among opposition political actors, and compares recent reformist initiatives with past political trajectories. The nature of illiberal democracy encourages a combination of contained and transgressive contention, with CSAs and political parties performing distinct but complementary roles. Enough space has been allowed over time for CSAs and political parties to accumulate coalitional capital, or the mutual trust and understanding necessary for groups to find common cause and work in coalition. In addition, shifts in political opportunities and threats encourage both CSAs and political parties to alter their strategies and thinking to take advantage of windows for change, facilitating long-term normative as well as institutional change.

342 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2005

About the author

Meredith L. Weiss is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She has held visiting fellowships or professorships in Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore, as well as the US. Weiss is the author of Student Activism in Malaysia: Crucible, Mirror, Sideshow (Cornell SEAP/NUS, 2011) and Protest and Possibilities: Civil Society and Coalitions for Political Change in Malaysia (Stanford, 2006), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. She is also co-editor of Global Homophobia: States, Movements, and the Politics of Oppression (Illinois, 2013), Student Activism in Asia: Between Protest & Powerlessness (Minnesota, 2012), Political Violence in South and Southeast Asia: Critical Perspectives (UNU, 2010) and Social Movements in Malaysia: From Moral Communities to NGOs (Routledge Curzon, 2003). Her research addresses political mobilisation and contention, the politics of development, civil society, nationalism and ethnicity and electoral change in maritime Southeast Asia.

Reviews

[Mariam Rawwas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weiss moves us through Malaysian political history, with coalitions forming around ethnicity, religion, class, etc., to hone in on the Reformasi movement, led by Anwar Ibrahim, originally directed against Mahathir Mohamad's Prime Ministership. Student protests which led to the resignation of Suharto in Indonesia (in the same year, 1998) are used as a foil for the Malaysian situation. Overall, the focus is on coalition-building, of how opposition parties are unable to reach critical mass so long as they fall along minority ethnicity lines, and how cross-ethnic policy platforms need to be devised in order to properly oppose an incumbent regime.