AGAINST ALL ODDS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CIVIL SOCIETY COALITIONS FOR ELECTORAL REFORM IN MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE

Abstract

What accounts for the formation of electoral reform coalition by civil society groups in Malaysia and the lack of such coalition in Singapore? In Malaysia, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) was formed in response to the pervasiveness of electoral malpractices systematically engineered by the-then Barisan Nasional (BN) government to perpetuate its stranglehold on power. However, just across its Southern border, Singapore has yet to witness an electoral reform coalition by civil society organisations (CSOs) despite the periodic allegations directed at the governing People’s Action Party (PAP) for engaging in electoral manipulation. This divergence is puzzling as many scholars posit that both Malaysia and Singapore are categorised as electoral authoritarian regimes and both regimes have an active civil society sector.

To solve the research puzzle, I conducted in-depth interviews with a positivist approach with civil society groups from Malaysia and Singapore. Based on the inductive findings, this thesis argues that public support, public interest and resources are the key factors that distinguish both countries. In addition, this thesis discovers that there are secondary factors present in both regimes which are incumbent repression, discourse and funding. These factors are expected to impede coalition-building in both regimes, but it only hinders in Singapore. Empirically, Malaysian CSOs unite for electoral reform due to presence of public support, public interest and pooling of resources to address the high electoral grievances. BN’s repression, discourse and funding have little effects on alliance formation as the key factors render BN-related factors ineffective. Comparatively, Singaporean CSOs abstain from forming an alliance due to low public support and public interest. This dissuades Singaporean CSOs to invest their already scarce resources into coalition-building efforts. PAP’s repression, discourse and funding further deter CSOs from coalescing for electoral reform. In short, this study offers new insights which compare the decisions of CSOs to form an alliance between Malaysia and Singapore.