IKMAS-Merdeka Center Seminar Series on the 14th Malaysian General Election “Multi-Cornered Contests – Bane or Boon?” | Institute of Malaysian and International Studies

IKMAS-Merdeka Center Seminar Series on the 14th Malaysian General Election “Multi-Cornered Contests – Bane or Boon?”

IKMAS-Merdeka Center Seminar Series on the 14^th Malaysian General Election

“Multi-Cornered Contests – Bane or Boon?”

Jointly organized by

Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
&
Merdeka Center for Opinion Research

In collaboration with
The University of Nottingham

Date: 7 October 2017
Time: 11.00am-1.00pm
Venue: Kuala Lumpur Teaching Centre, Chulan Tower, The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus

About the Seminar

Multi-cornered contests are inevitable in the looming 14^th general election after Pakatan Harapan’s Presidential Council announced its decision to break ties with Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS). Another opposition party, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), sets to contest on its own because of its frustration with Pakatan leaders over “broken promises” on seat arrangements. Over in East Malaysia, local opposition parties are determined to contest without any electoral pact with the “Semenanjung” based Pakatan parties in order to ride on the rising sentiments of regionalism in the two states. Many analysts argue that the opposition would not be able to continue its winning ways in the next election as a straight contest is needed to seriously challenge BN’s dominance as evident from the last two general elections. However, some Pakatan leaders believe that they can still win federal power since there is a groundswell feeling of anger and frustration among the electorate against the ruling party. Some Pakatan leaders boldly claim that there will be a Malay tsunami; subsequently eroding UMNO’s and PAS’s popularity.

About the Speakers

Dr. Johan Saravanamuttu, Adjunct Senior Fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, held previous positions as professor of political science at Science University of Malaysia (USM) and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. He is the author of Malaysia’s Foreign Policy, the First 50 Years: Alignment, Neutralism, Islamism (ISEAS, 2010) and Power Sharing in a Divided Nation: Mediated Communalism and New Politics over Six Decades of Elections in Malaysia (ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2016). His current research focuses on party capitalism, money politics and electoral democracy.

Associate Prof. Dr Faisal S. Hazis is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), The National University of Malaysia. He is also the Head of Centre for Asian Studies at IKMAS. He specializes in electoral politics, democratisation and rural informatics. Among his selected publications are Competitive Elections and Regime Stability in Malaysia (2017), Patronage, Power and Prowess: Barisan Nasional’s Equilibrium Dominance in East Malaysia (2015), Malaysia in 2014: A Year of Political and Social Ferment (2015), Politics and Local Government in Sarawak (2013) and Domination and Contestation: Muslim Bumiputera Politics in Sarawak (2012). He is a life member of ALIRAN, a reform movement dedicated to justice, freedom and solidarity. Apart from that, Faisal is also a life member of the Malaysian Social Science Association.

Mr. Ibrahim Suffian is a co-founder and programs director of Merdeka Center for Opinion Research, a leading public opinion polling and political surveys organization in Malaysia. Besides undertaking research assignments, Ibrahim is actively involved in briefings for the diplomatic and the financial community about political developments in Malaysia. He presently manages Merdeka Center’s portfolio of clients ranging from political parties, government departments as well as local and international institutions of higher learning. Through Merdeka Center, Ibrahim has been involved in organizing surveys in Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Brunei, Singapore and Myanmar. Prior to his role in Merdeka Center, Ibrahim worked as a project finance specialist in a Malaysian investment bank and a project manager in an international development agency. Ibrahim received education from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and obtained an MBA from the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Ibrahim was a World Fellow at Yale University in 2011.