KAROLINA PRASAD, IDENTITY POLITICS AND ELECTIONS IN MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA: ETHNIC ENGINEERING IN BORNEO. ABINGDON: ROUTLEDGE, 2016. 215PP. ISBN: 978-1-138-85473-4 (HBK) BOOK REVIEW
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Abstract
Karolina Prasad’s book is a welcoming addition to the literature on ethnic politics in Malaysia and Indonesia, particularly in Sarawak (Malaysia) and West Kalimantan (Indonesia). To the reviewer’s knowledge, this is a first scholarly work that compares extensively the ethnic politics in Sarawak and West Kalimantan, two states on Borneo with the same ethnic composition but under different regimes and electoral institutions. Malaysia is a consociational polity where power is shared through the bargains among the elites of various ethnic categories. Malaysia also adopts a first-past-the-post electoral system with single-mandate constituencies. While legislators at the national and state levels in Malaysia are directly elected, executive heads at the national, regional and local levels are indirectly elected. Indonesia, on the other hand, is a centripetal polity that does not include elite bargains but instead let the voters decide the ethnic composition of the legislative and executive. Indonesia also adopts a proportional representation electoral system with multi-mandate constituencies. Legislators at the national, provincial and local levels are directly elected. Moreover, presidents and vice-presidents are directly elected since 2004, and executive heads at the regional and local levels are directly elected since 2005. While West Kalimantan has encountered several inter-ethnic conflicts, including the deadly violence of 1999, 2000 and 2001 between Dayaks and Madurese as well as between Malays and Madurese, Sarawak has remained peaceful since it became part of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. This study aims to find out under different political settings in divided societies, how political entrepreneurs use ethnic identities as tools to expand their support base or to maximise their chances of victory in elections. In other words, this book is about how politics influence ethnic identities in societies where ethnic identities are activated in politics.
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