COLLAPSE OF THE LEVIATHAN: INQUIRING INTO BARISAN NASIONAL'S 2018 ELECTORAL ROUT IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

Abstract

The ouster of Barisan Nasional (BN) by Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the 14th Malaysian General Election marks a radical change in the country’s political landscape. For the first time, Malaysians witnessed an alteration in the country’s governing coalition as PH, led by the former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammad coasted to victory. Thus, crushing the scandal-ridden BN administration under Najib Razak (2009-2018). Political commentators are quick to attribute this momentous political upset to the ‘Mahathir Factor’, therefore emphasising the former Prime Minister’s critical role in engineering a national electoral revolt against BN. Despite formidable state capacity and structural impediments engineered against the opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan, why was Barisan Nasional routed in the 2018 General Election (GE), specifically in Peninsular Malaysia? Contrarian to existing expositions, this thesis will employ Dan Slater’s theoretical framework on elite protection pact, to examine how crumbling elite support for BN led to the electoral defeat of the once mighty Leviathan. Henceforth, this thesis asserts that the incapability of BN component parties such as United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) and the Malaysian People’s Movement Party (GERAKAN) to reinforce the already disintegrating protection concordat was central to the regime’s downfall and electoral debacle in Peninsular Malaysia