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Out With the New, In With the Old in Malaysia

Zsombor Peter

   KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - With parties championing Malaysia's Malay
   Muslim majority back in power following February's [1]spectacular
   collapse of Mahathir Mohamad's reformist Pakatan Harapan, or Coalition
   of Hope, government, many expect a conservative turn with more
   race-based policies that risk raising tensions in the multiethnic
   country.

   Pakatan, which had toppled the long-ruling Barisan Nasional coalition
   at the polls in 2018, had watched its popularity nosedive as Barisan
   heavyweight United Malays National Organization and the Islamist
   Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS, played up fears that Malay Muslims
   and other indigenous groups, or Bumiputra, were being sidelined.

   Fearing Pakatan would lose the next poll, a handful of its lawmakers
   broke away in February to ally with UMNO and PAS. Then-Prime Minister
   Mahathir resigned in protest, setting off a leadership tussle that saw
   the king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, name Mahathir's interior
   minister and fellow Bersatu party member, Muhyiddin Yassin, the winner.

References

   1. https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/malaysia-swears-new-prime-minister-mahathir-loses-out

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