Events

CHAIRPERSON

Assoc Prof Michael Feener, Asia Research Institute and Department of History, National University of Singapore.

ABSTRACT

The election results of 2008 were seen as the awakening of the political conscience of the Malaysian people. In this new wave of liberalization, the growing public discontent has challenged a well-developed crony system: UMNO and the government leaders have felt even more threaten to lose power to the opposition. From 2008 to 2013, the ethnonationalist movement has emerged, led by new groups like Pekida or Perkasa. The vocal “ketuanan Melayu front” has led to the abortion of Badawi and Najib’s attempts of reforms–whether genuine or superficial-. What if the liberalization of the public sphere since the Mahathir era have paved the way for the emergence of civil surrogates of political parties? What if Malaysian so-called “civil society” was in fact used as a veil to hide and promote the rise of militants who are in indeed sub-contractors of political parties (i.e UMNO) discourse and actions? What is the role of these secret militants? Would a government change put an end to the phenomena?

This paper is a preliminary sketch of a vaporous object of study conveying a verbal image of a phenomenon that remained mostly out of the sight of academia that is the relationship between political parties and connivance militants. Connivance militancy is a secret political arrangement by which a formal political actor (i.e: a political party, a government or a politician) sub-contracts legal and/or illegal political actions serving its interests, ranging from advocacy, to demonstrations and violence, to groups of individuals. Connivance militants groups (CMG) may be seen as entrepreneurs of mobilization and/or violence who offer their services in exchange for money or advantages, and thus become informal political actors. This research has no precedent and challenges the numerous analyses previously done on Malaysian Politics. It is the fruit of six years of exploration beyond the appearance of the Malaysian political system and grabs what is to be unseen and untold.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Sophie Lemière (PhD 2013) is Associate Researcher at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies (IRASEC-CNRS) and currently based at the Institute for the Study of Islam and Muslim Societies (IISMM) in Paris. Her research on Malaysian Politics is based on extensive field research conducted since 2006. Sophie’s area of expertise focus both on religious politics and political militancy. Her Master thesis explored the Apostasy controversies and Islamic civil society, and her PhD is an original analysis of the relationship between gangs and political parties in Malaysia. Former research associate at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) then affiliated Junior Reseearcher at the Asian Research Institute (ARI-NUS), she hold a PhD and a Master in Comparative Politics from Sciences-Po (France).

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you RSVP Mr Jonathan Lee via email: jonathan.lee@nus.edu.sg