The State Of Regime Change And Systemic Change In The Electoral Politics Of Malaysia And The Philippines: What Has Malaysia And The Post-Marcos Philippines Learnt?
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Date
2021-03
Authors
Fong, John Wai Kinn
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
This study explores and analyses the differences in the change of government in the electoral politics. The democratic rule for most of the South East Asia nations particularly in Malaysia and the Philippines, were interpreted differently by politicians, the elites, and the leaders. Instead, they have chosen to consolidate the power that they acquired through elected office and the immense wealth that comes with it. As elections remain a crucial attribute of democracy in Malaysia and the Philippines since granting independence, absolute authoritarianism is impossible, therefore, electoral authoritarianism was introduced as it has the ability to mimic many fundamental attributes of democracy and possesses sufficient indicators of democracy. As the regimes began tightening its grip and employed a higher level of electoral authoritarianism over the years, the people began mobilizing towards challenging the regime and demanded that the power of rule returns to the people. Depending on the scale of mobilization and the electoral reform movements, regime change, and systemic change occurred in Malaysia and the Philippines, respectively. The great challenge is now how much of these improved changes were actually permanent after a change of government or even so, will they be able to stand the test of time or to stand against any future changes in the government? This research uses secondary source and qualitative method; in-depth one-to-one interviews are conducted with 10 identified respondents who are familiar with Malaysia and the Philippines political and electoral system, respectively. The study analyses the insights given by these experts and through the secondary sources on how Malaysia’s semi-authoritarian and Philippines’ authoritarian political power persist then breakdown towards regime and systemic changes respectively and to explore the differences on the issue of how the people seek for electoral reforms to change their government in Malaysia and the Philippines. Finally, the research concludes with what Malaysia and the Post-Marcos Philippines learn from the systemic changes in the Philippines and the regime change in Malaysia. Active political participation and strong mobilizations by the Filipinos, shown in the process of systemic change of Post-Marcos Philippines were among the lessons that can be inferred upon as Malaysia changes regime, leading towards a better democratisation in both nations in the near future.
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Keywords
Politics