While the results did not alter the make-up of the national parliament, the election provided a measure of the rising opposition to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his Pakatan Harapan coalition.
Malaysia’s giant United Malays National Organisation (Umno), which ruled for 61 years before losing power in the 2018 election, is at a crossroads as it struggles to regain its primacy as the dominant political force in the Malay-majority country. While Umno remains popular with Malay voters, the party is fractured, wracked with internal rivalries and has a party president who.
January 29, 2021
Hindu devotees carry milk pots on their heads as they gather at a shrine in Batu Caves during the 2019 Thaipusam celebrations in Kuala Lumpur.
Reuters
The cancellation of a public holiday for a Hindu festival in Malaysia’s Kedah state along with the country’s de facto Religious Affairs Ministry recently signalling that the country’s sharia law penalties could be strengthened – with the country’s LGBT community as one of the main targets –
have unsettled religious minorities and some moderate Muslims who worry the country is moving towards greater conservatism.
The Kedah chief minister’s decision to cancel the one-day public holiday on Thursday to celebrate Thaipusam, purportedly out of coronavirus fears, has come in for heavy criticism by Malaysian opposition MPs and former prime minister Najib Razak .