How do you manage all the balancing factors of working in an industry as complicated as politics? Well, sometimes you need a little help. Dr. Sophie Lemiere, director of political consultancy firm SoCo, takes us through what political consultancy entails and...
Category: News & Publications
Let’s Talk: Digital cultural archive – Astro AWANI
Sharaad Kuttan speaks to political anthropologist Sophie Lemière, founder of World Wonderers, about its cultural heritage preservation and community empowerment project in Sabah and Sarawak called PITCH - Preservation of Indigenous Intangible Traditions and Cultural...
A Tumultuous Year in Malaysian Politicking
Malaysia’s intricate political games have intensified since 2018, and the tectonic politics have shifted back and forth. The democratic transition many had hoped for with the end of 61 years of single-party rule did not materialize. The unexpected resignation of...
Forget 1MDB, could Najib Razak be Malaysia’s next prime minister?
Three years after being booted from office amid a global financial scandal, the disgraced former leader’s brand, and that of his Umno party, is resurrecting Najib’s second coming has parallels to Mahathir’s messianic return. In his case it is based on an appeal to...
Malaysia’s political pendulum has already swung back to Umno. Is Muhyiddin next?
The country has a new prime minister in Ismail Sabri, but its cabinet is mostly the same as Muhyiddin’s – signalling a return to conservative Malay politics The former premier’s position heading the National Recovery Council is another sign of his survival instinct....
Malaysia: Gangster Boogie, Bosses And Politics
In F.Allum and S.Gilmour, Handbook of Organised Crime and Politics, Chapter 26 Edward Elgar 29 March, 2019 This chapter focuses specifically on the relationship between the organisation PEKIDA and its satellites, and the former ruling party UMNO (1957-2018). It...
Truce and Tales in New Malaysia: Happy First Anniversary
The ASAN Forum, Vol 7 (4), June 2019 The expression “New Malaysia” or Malaysia Baharu emerged in 2016 as a semantic capsule for the democratic aspirations of the movement for electoral reform Bersih (“clean” in Malay), whose rally in November of that year brought more...
Minorities Matter: Malaysian Politics and People Volume III
Reflecting on the changes, and continuities, that Malaysia has witnessed since the electoral outcome of GE14, Minorities Matter brings together a group of local and international scholar to look at contemporary Malaysian politics and society through the lens of those...
Exploring Politics: Why Malaysia?
In this interview, Sophie Lemière was interviewed by The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC). The Shorenstein APARC addresses critical issues affecting the countries of Asia, their regional and global affairs, and U.S.-Asia...
The Downfall of Malaysia’s Ruling Party
Journal of Democracy, Vol 29(4), 114 - 128 October 2018 General elections in May 2018 saw the downfall of controversial prime minister Najib Razak—and an end to the monopoly on power enjoyed by the ethnonationalist United Malays National Organization (UMNO) for the...