Features of the National Front Losing in Malaysia’s 14th General Election
Nik Mawwardi Mohamed1, Iskandar Hasan Tan Abdullah2
1Nik Mawwardi Mohamed, University Technology MARA Malaysia.
2Iskandar Hasan Tan Abdullah, University Technology MARA, Malaysia.
Manuscript received on 16 February 2019 | Revised Manuscript received on 07 March 2019 | Manuscript Published on 08 June 2019 | PP: 672-679 | Volume-7 Issue-5S4, February 2019 | Retrieval Number: E11390275S419/19©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: National Front, with its concept of power-sharing between Malaysian’s major ethnics, had managed to get resounding wins after wins in Malaysian General Election from 4 th General Election to 11th General Election until it lost its two third majority in 12th General Election and 13th General Election and totally lost in 14th General Election. National Front’s loss in Malaysia’s 14th General Election baffled many political scientists who predicted it could still hold on to its simple majority despite the many governance issues plaguing it, especially the 1MDB mega scandal that implicated Najib Razak, particularly because there was a split in the opposition coalition, Harapan Pact, due to PAS not joining it and due to the lack of institutional reform on the part of the government. However, despite the existence of three-cornered fights in almost all of the seats contested, and despite the re-delienation of the seats which heavily favoured National Front, it still lost in Malaysia’s 14th General Election. This study is an attempt at discussing on why National Front still lost in Malaysia’s 14th General Election despite its usage of the tested racial and religious issues, despite the split in the opposition coalition and despite the lack of institutional reform. This study finds that National Front’s loss in Malaysia 14th General Election was due to the roles played by foreign institutions which were helped by the existence of a very strong internal leader, Mahathir Mohamad. Both of these factors help Harapan Pact overcome National Front’s strategy of using three-cornered fights to win Malaysia’s 14th General Election. At last in the end it was proven that the strategy, although did help National Front to win in 39 seats contested, failed to prevent National Front from losing in other seats in Malaysia’s 14th General Election due to the highly strong intensity of people’s rejection of both Najib Razak and National Front.
Keywords: 1MDB, Harapan Pact, Institutional Reform, General Election, National Front, Opposition Coalition.
Scope of the Article: Geotechnical Engineering