Beyond the Ballot Box

It’s been said that Malaysia is a democracy. That the people have the power. But when we look at our political landscape today, it seems like the voters -- the rakyat -- don’t actually have a say in the goings on. In fact, the political maneuvering and durian trading that’s allegedly currently ongoing is in complete contradiction with what the people want -- complete focus on cur...

It’s been a wild week in Malaysian politics and that’s saying something. From Law Minister Takiyuddin Hassan’s blunder in Parliament, PN clashing with the Monarch, Parliament being postponed and then postponed again and later barricaded altogether, to more numbers game. All of this taking place against the backdrop of more than 200 daily COVID-19 deaths. So, it’s a mess. Bu...

There has been a series of protests organised by Youth activist group, Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat (SSR). You might remember pictures from a few weeks ago of protesters in PPEs, carrying mock dead bodies, waving black flags. This was followed by the Convoy protest last week, where protesters across the nation sat in their cars and drove to dedicated spots, while waving black flags. And this comi...

The 14th General Elections was a historic occasion. After governing the country for more than 60 years, the ruling Barisan Nasional government was voted out by the people of Malaysia. For many Malaysians, this was meant to be the start of the country moving in a completely different direction. But much of PH’s tenure was plagued by infighting between Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim. And fast forw...

Amid the rising number of positive COVID-19 cases, job losses and suicide cases, we’ve got another round of, no, not brilliant policy ideas focused on the people’s welfare, but of course, more elite level political drama. Last evening, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has been promoted to Deputy Prime Minister, while Foreign Minister...

Arveent Kathirtchelvan of PSM Youth recently wrote an article exploring why Parliamentary Democracy will not be a solution to a lot of the problems, despite what many think. We have a conversation with him about what he thinks would be a better way to actually give power to the people.   Image source: Shutterstock  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There seems to be quite a lot of noise coming from UMNO over the past week or so, from statutory declarations to the continuous war among factions that seems to be eating the party up from the inside out. So, what’s up with UMNO? Oh Ei Sun, Senior Fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs joins us to share his insights. Image source: Ahmad Maslan Facebook, Shutterstock, Zahi...

A few days ago, the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s bid to stop a bankruptcy order, which was slapped onto him in April, for failing to pay a tax bill totalling 1.74 billion ringgit. But what does this all mean for Najib and our political landscape? Constitutional lawyer, Lim Wei Jiet and political commentator, James Chai, joins us to discuss. Image sourc...

It looks like it’s shaping up to be a pretty hectic couple of weeks at the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s palace. His majesty wrapped up his first day of meetings with the head honchos from the opposition bench yesterday, with more meetings scheduled for today. On top of that, the YDPA is also set to convene a special Rulers’ conference next week.  But what exactly is going on? And...

Many analysts and researchers have pointed out that our electoral system is highly flawed. That the British’s First-Past-The-Post system that we still use in Malaysia to this day is not only unfair to the people but also does not encourage diversity in our political space. Think of the seat negotiations that take place among coalition buddies before elections, or how you vote for the party w...

For the longest time, DAP has been labelled, by some, as a pro-Chinese, evil party. But are things changing with a new wave of younger representatives in the party? On this episode, DAP Youth Chief Howard Lee joins us to discuss social democracy and the Future of DAP. Image Source: Howard Lee Facebook See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s episode of Beyond the Ballot Box, we take a look at democracy. What does it actually mean in Malaysia? Qyira Yusri of UNDI18 and Sharan Raj of PSM, join us to discuss if elections should be held during a pandemic, the importance of protests, and how we can change the mindset of the rakyat , so that we know that we have the power to shape the country in our image, not the gover...

It’s been a few months now, since the 2020 Sabah elections. Few would deny that it was an exciting, heartbreaking and thrilling affair. The whole country was paying attention. But a lot of us here in the Peninsula, we tend to see things through the lens of National politics. (i.e. What does it mean for PH, what does it mean for BN, etc) But what was the Sabah elections about to Sabahans them...