The transformation in Malaysia's 12th general election: the end of National Front Hegemony

The ruling party Barisan Nasional (National Front) inherited the trust and tradition initiated by the Alliance Party that achieved the Malayan Independence. The Alliance first test was the Kuala Lumpur Municipal Council's election in 1952 where they won convincingly 12 out of 14 seats. The supp...

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Main Author: Ahmad, S.Y.
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.um.edu.my/11110/1/The_Transformation_in_Malaysia%27s_12th_General.pdf
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author Ahmad, S.Y.
author_facet Ahmad, S.Y.
author_sort Ahmad, S.Y.
collection UM
description The ruling party Barisan Nasional (National Front) inherited the trust and tradition initiated by the Alliance Party that achieved the Malayan Independence. The Alliance first test was the Kuala Lumpur Municipal Council's election in 1952 where they won convincingly 12 out of 14 seats. The support continued in the 1955 General Election, where they won 51 out of 52 seats contested. Nevertheless in the 1969 election, the Alliance has experienced a major loss when they failed to get the two-third majority and even lost several state governments to the opposition. This party later changed its name into National Front in 1972 and simultaneously expanded their components into a bigger coalition party. It has become a unique political formula in Malaysian politics to reduce politicking and keeping the divided ethnicized parties together. The National Front kept on winning in 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999 and 2004 elections handsomely. The dominance of National Front in most General Elections proved that its strength cannot be challenged easily. The supremacy however, started to deteriorate in the 2008 recent General Election when the two-third usual majority was suddenly denied. The ability of the opposition to deny National Front its majority has put the National Front into a very difficult position. Using Gramscian concept of hegemony, this paper tries to elaborate how National Front has successfully maintained their power until suffering big loss in 2008.
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spelling um.eprints-111102014-12-17T02:17:14Z http://eprints.um.edu.my/11110/ The transformation in Malaysia's 12th general election: the end of National Front Hegemony Ahmad, S.Y. AC Collections. Series. Collected works The ruling party Barisan Nasional (National Front) inherited the trust and tradition initiated by the Alliance Party that achieved the Malayan Independence. The Alliance first test was the Kuala Lumpur Municipal Council's election in 1952 where they won convincingly 12 out of 14 seats. The support continued in the 1955 General Election, where they won 51 out of 52 seats contested. Nevertheless in the 1969 election, the Alliance has experienced a major loss when they failed to get the two-third majority and even lost several state governments to the opposition. This party later changed its name into National Front in 1972 and simultaneously expanded their components into a bigger coalition party. It has become a unique political formula in Malaysian politics to reduce politicking and keeping the divided ethnicized parties together. The National Front kept on winning in 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999 and 2004 elections handsomely. The dominance of National Front in most General Elections proved that its strength cannot be challenged easily. The supremacy however, started to deteriorate in the 2008 recent General Election when the two-third usual majority was suddenly denied. The ability of the opposition to deny National Front its majority has put the National Front into a very difficult position. Using Gramscian concept of hegemony, this paper tries to elaborate how National Front has successfully maintained their power until suffering big loss in 2008. 2009-07 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.um.edu.my/11110/1/The_Transformation_in_Malaysia%27s_12th_General.pdf Ahmad, S.Y. (2009) The transformation in Malaysia's 12th general election: the end of National Front Hegemony. In: 4th International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 8-11 July 2009, University of Athens, Greece. (Submitted)
spellingShingle AC Collections. Series. Collected works
Ahmad, S.Y.
The transformation in Malaysia's 12th general election: the end of National Front Hegemony
title The transformation in Malaysia's 12th general election: the end of National Front Hegemony
title_full The transformation in Malaysia's 12th general election: the end of National Front Hegemony
title_fullStr The transformation in Malaysia's 12th general election: the end of National Front Hegemony
title_full_unstemmed The transformation in Malaysia's 12th general election: the end of National Front Hegemony
title_short The transformation in Malaysia's 12th general election: the end of National Front Hegemony
title_sort transformation in malaysia s 12th general election the end of national front hegemony
topic AC Collections. Series. Collected works
url http://eprints.um.edu.my/11110/1/The_Transformation_in_Malaysia%27s_12th_General.pdf
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