THE last general election birthed a situation that was not common before 2008: the Barisan Nasional (BN) functioning as an opposition. Although the BN has been the opposition in Kelantan for many years, it was a completely new experience for them in Selangor, Penang, Perak and Kedah. Indeed, the blanket term “opposition” previously used to [...]

I HAVE no doubt that a two-party system is better than the one-party state we currently live in. However, what is desirable is not necessarily viable. As I have argued, blind faith in the feasibility of a two-party system may lead to either one-party predominance (under the Barisan Nasional [BN] or Pakatan Rakyat [PR]), or [...]

(Corrected at 12pm, 24 Feb 2010) (Scales by darktaco / sxc.hu) FEDERAL opposition politicians and their well-wishers like to talk about an emerging two-party system in Malaysia. I believe having a two-party system is a noble goal, but it is also a false option at this juncture. A two-party system implies normal politics in a [...]

PAS leaders celebrating the outcome of the Manik Urai by-election on 14 July 2009 THE outcome of the Manik Urai by-election couldn’t have been better. PAS, and by extension the Pakatan Rakyat (PR), won by a narrow margin of 65 votes. They won, but at the same time, PAS lost the huge majority it got [...]

PETALING JAYA, 25 June 2009: Pakatan Rakyat needs to, among others, form a shadow cabinet in order for Malaysia to start having a two-party system, a political scientist said. Monash University Sunway Campus’s Prof Dr James Chin said Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had to first formalise itself as a coalition before talk about Malaysia having a [...]

Which side of the fence? (Background image by Ariel da Silva Parreira / sxc.hu) FOR more than 50 years, the Barisan Nasional (BN) has used an array of laws and methods to silence dissent and perpetuate its own vision of reality as the only truth. But in recent years, the scenario has changed. The BN [...]