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...
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...
Islamist Echoes in the context of the Tunisian Islamist Party’s 10th Congress
European University Institute, Max Weber Programme, July 2017 Since the uprising in 2011, Tunisia is seen as a political lab whose experiences impact the entire region. The return to the political scene of the of the Islamists of the Ennahdha Party, and their...
Genesis and Development of a “non-Partisan” Political Actor: the Formation of the Jama’ah Islah Malaysia (JIM) and its Roots in Western Europe
Al-Jami‘ah, Vol. 47, No. 1, 2009 M/1430 H This chapter looks at the genesis and development of the Jama’ah Islah Malaysia (JIM), a modernist-reformist Islamist organisation that today has played a vital and visible role in the political landscape of Malaysian...
Apostasy and Islamic Civil Society in Malaysia
ISIM Review 20 / Autumn 2007 In Malaysia, legal definitions of the religious category “Muslim” and ethnic category “Malay” imply each other. Consequently, Muslims who have renounced Islam find themselves in an abyssal legal zone. The legal intricacies and the media...