Malaysia’s crisis of political legitimacy: Understanding the 2020 power transition and ‘Sheraton Move’ polemics through the ‘eyes’ of Malaysian political science graduates

Abstract

This empirical study examines the reactions of 114 political science graduates in Malaysia, through a questionnaire-based survey on the power transition crisis that took place February 23rd to 1 March 2020. Throughout these “seven long days”, there was little opportunity given to university students, who were concerned with the Malaysian political affairs, to share their views in light of the “Sheraton Move” polemics and the formation of a new government (Perikatan Nasional, PN). Various responses from the students in the survey have been recorded among these are: the attitudes regarding the polemics of PN’s “backdoor government”; the conspiracy of the opposition’s political parties to topple the Pakatan Harapan (PH) leadership; the prospect of Mahathir’s unity government; the proposal for parliament dissolution and re-election; and the lessons behind the crisis. This study establishes that the 60.6 percent of the respondents rejected the power transition as it was during the political crisis, as well as supporting the criticisms on the formation of PN as betraying the people’s mandate. Respondents (86.0 percent) also agreed that the Majesty King (Yang di-Pertuan Agong) had played an effective role during the turmoil and proposed re-election and dissolution of the parliament at the expense of justice for all. The lessons derivable from the “Sheraton Move” is that the real politics approach is not relevant in the context of modern democracy, in Malaysia; there is the need to retain the spirit of consociational politics and the importance of political education for the youth in Malaysia, in particular, the future new voters.

Keywords

• Sheraton Move
• Pakatan Harapan
• Perikatan Nasional
• Prime Minister
• power transition
• Malaysia political science graduate