Malaysia's Third Way
1st Way, 2nd Way, 3rd Way ... All are UMNO Way, how ? We need the 6th way, actually, no, we need the 11th way ... according to String Theory.
A new splinter party throws a wrench into the political machine
Prime Minister Najib Razak has struggled to deliver on his promises of economic growth. The PKR, meanwhile, has frayed since the government resumed its legal vendetta against its leader, Anwar Ibrahim, in 2008.
The Wall Street Journal
In two-party democracies, third parties can sometimes be beneficial for the political system even if they don't win any elections. By putting fresh thinking in public circulation, they at least keep the establishment on its toes.
That's why last week's unveiling of the People's Welfare Party, or Kita, is a welcome development for Malaysia. The new party is the brainchild of Zaid Ibrahim, a former law minister and MP with the ruling National Front coalition.
Kita is a "moderate, democratic, liberal" party, Mr. Zaid said at last week's ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, one that "focuses on issues." Mr. Zaid has made well-known his strong distaste for both the United Malays National Organization, the largest ethnic-Malay party in the National Front, and the opposition National Justice Party, or PKR, calling them "the devil we know and the deep blue sea."
In Malaysia as elsewhere, there are good reasons not to swallow too quickly a politician's promises to shake up his country's politics. But Kita has a plausible claim to calling itself a new voice. Mr. Zaid, though active in Malaysian politics since 2000, remains something of an outsider. A year after joining the administration of then Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi in 2008, he resigned in protest at the government's use of the Internal Security Act, which permits detention without trial. He joined PKR in June 2009 but quit last month, frustrated with what he saw as extensive corruption within the party's leadership.
Kita's policy positions largely follow those Mr. Zaid has championed in his various offices over the years. New antigraft regulations are a top priority. Religious beliefs, Mr. Zaid suggests, should not dictate policy—a principle often under threat in Malaysia despite the constitution's guarantee of a secular democracy. A party that sets out to be multiracial, as Kita does, may also have better luck at overturning deeply entrenched labor laws that favor ethnic Malays over Chinese and Indians.
The new party's membership is tiny so far, and it has yet to announce its plans to field candidates in a possible national election this year. But in a political system as ossified as Malaysia's, simply having new ideas may be enough to make an impact. In this respect Kita bears some similarity to Semangat 46, the splinter party founded by former UMNO Finance Minister Razaleigh Hamzah in 1988. Even though it never was a serious electoral threat to then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad or the National Front, Semangat 46 became a vocal advocate of economic reform before it dissolved in 1996.
That brings us to another useful function of third parties: identifying public dissatisfaction with the two leading factions. In Malaysia, neither of these is looking too robust. Prime Minister Najib Razak has struggled to deliver on his promises of economic growth. The PKR, meanwhile, has frayed since the government resumed its legal vendetta against its leader, Anwar Ibrahim, in 2008.
It may take an earthquake to shake up Malaysia's stagnant politics, but Mr. Zaid at least offers a solid tremor.
Comments