Real political reform in south-east Asia is still a dream
Nobody expects countries like Malaysia or Thailand — let alone even more politically blighted neighbours — to emerge as textbook liberal democracies any time soon.
The grim lesson in south-east Asian politics this past week — underneath the surface-level dramas — is that the problem of the region’s systems isn’t too much change, but too much continuity.
Malaysia’s governing Pakatan Harapan coalition has disintegrated not two years after its historic victory in the 2018 general election. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad resigned suddenly late last month after an apparent attempt at a "self-coup" from factions within the coalition hostile to plans for Anwar Ibrahim to succeed Mahathir.
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Liam Gammon is a research fellow in the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and an editor at East Asia Forum (www.eastasiaforum.org) in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific.
