Pakatan Harapan’s victory in the 2018 elections in Malaysia revealed what had really underpinned the rule of the Barisan Nasional government for the 61 years since independence from Britain.

An electoral system engineered to produce victories for the incumbent coalition and widespread curbs on civil liberties and press freedom were part of the formula. But just as in non-communist regimes elsewhere in the region, political despots or their hegemonic parties relied on support from business and the many citizens who benefited from the spoils of the pre-Asian financial crisis boom.