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How to Transform Malaysia’s Regime 261

respondents to a commissioned 2016 Merdeka Center survey saw their federal
or state legislator’s chief priority as legislating. So long as most voters prefer
that politicians focus on ‘going to the ground’ (turun padang) and serving the
local community (e.g., the sort of assiduous outreach and image-management
Kloos explores in his chapter), the incentives candidates face will not change,
obliging them still to cultivate a personal vote.
But especially important for policy-based di erentiation, allowing
responsible party government, is the fact that Malaysian voters clearly are
divided, along more than one axis. So long as Malaysia has a multipolar
distribution of votes—Pakatan, BN (really, UMNO), PAS (to ally with
UMNO), and a potential ‘Borneo bloc’—parties may see bene t in
maintaining, not obscuring, their distinct ideological pro les, policy priorities,
and messaging. at balance could help to move Malaysia past its emphasis to
date on the opposition’s achieving a solidary coalition about as encompassing
as the BN. Fostering partisan di erentiation rather than coordination in
pursuit of the lowest common denominator would allow closer approximation
of sets of voters’ distinct preferences. As it stands, though, as Wong’s chapter
emphasizes, Malaysia’s rst-past-the-vote system precludes the sort of partisan
turf-staking proportional representation encourages.
So what to expect? Democratic consolidation is never instantaneous;
indeed, its core indicator is regular changes of government by elections, which
can only play out over decades. at the new Pakatan government will enact
reforms is sure; what is less certain is that such changes will permeate each of
the dimensions above equally deeply. But the long-term genesis of the changes
now afoot, and the complex, often cross-cutting or even contradictory shifts
the chapters here examine, suggest that current a nities and objectives have
deep roots and buy-in. Just as a transition in government has been long in
coming, its e ects will not be so readily reversed.

Notes
1 ‘Hacks/Hackers KL Forum: Vote Like a Pro’, Kuala Lumpur, 1 April 2018.
2 Interview, Gan Ping Sieu, 17 July 2014, Kuala Lumpur.
3 e Merdeka Center found economic concerns (followed by corruption and housing)
ranked the highest priority nationally and in each state they surveyed as the election
approached (Merdeka Center 2018: slide 9).
4 For instance, Steven Sim and Lee Khai Loon’s participatory budgeting initiatives,
or Yap Soo Huey’s approach to improving tra c ows. Interviews, 3–4 January 2015,
Penang and 9 January 2015, Petaling Jaya.

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