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Towards a New Malaysia? 9

Lastly, with GE14 behind us, social-scienti c scholarship on Malaysia will
need to nd new foci, the better to explore an altered political landscape.
We might assess, for instance, whether we see a new dominant-party system
developing under Pakatan Harapan. If so or if not, what speci c institutional
changes or mechanisms prevent or encourage that development? In other
words, what speci cally rei es, completes, or upends a transition after a
change of leadership by election? What sort of regional or state di erences
account for any variations in this development, if we see patterns pertaining to
‘belts’, states, or other subnational units? In the absence of long-term electoral
authoritarianism, do parties grow stronger or weaker, such that we see, for
instance, greater uidity across party lines (and hence, less clearly de ned
parties) or a shift in the relative weight of the personal vote? How does a
more competitive electoral sphere alter the balance between the formal and
informal political spheres, including relative space for, encouragement of, and
motivation to participate in civil society, and the extent of those organisations’
nonpartisan autonomy? Or more broadly, if Malaysia does consolidate a more
liberal order, should we understand that change as being driven by elections
and formal politics, or as being rooted in civil society, including the sorts of
groups Haris Zuan and Hew Wai Weng note as important here? It remains to
be seen what this transition, however deep-set and enduring, changes and what
it does not, and where Malaysia’s political paths now lead.

Looking Ahead

When we rst began work on this volume, in mid-May 2018, just one
week after the election, we brought together both established and up-and-
coming Malaysianists, all of whom had done exciting research preceding and
during the election campaign, across a wide range of topics and issues. We
initially identi ed researchers who could contribute on four key subthemes:
voting patterns, key battleground states, campaign issues, and post-election
trajectories. Subsequent retooling, for both logistical and substantive reasons,
brought us to the current structure. However much ground we cover, our
volume remains far from comprehensive. A few topics are glaringly missing,
such as exploration of voting patterns among minority groups such as Orang
Asli and Indian communities, the role of in uential personalities such as
Mahathir Mohamad, and speci c dynamics in particular states. Some of the
chapters here do touch upon these important topics—but they merit more
attention than we are able to devote to them.

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