Polls apart: The battle for Malaysia in 2022 election
Embezzlement, GST and a RM100 million pink diamond ring. Public outrage and street rallies over these issues were harnessed by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) pact to defeat the long-ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in Malaysia's 2018 General Election.
Four years on, and weeks ahead of the next polls, that voter anger has dissipated somewhat. Meanwhile, disenchantment with the reformist PH's unfulfilled promises resulted in little sympathy when it was ousted in February 2020, after party defections led to the administration's collapse and paved the way for BN to return to government, albeit with a slim majority.
Yet it is unclear if this state of affairs will be enough to propel BN and its linchpin party Umno back to their former glory at the upcoming election.
Investor sentiment remains fragile amid political uncertainty in Malaysia
Amid global headwinds, investor sentiment is likely to stay fragile as Malaysia heads into a snap election with an unapproved budget. And experts predict the worst is yet to come for the stock market if the polls do not produce a strong mandate.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI has plunged almost 12 per cent year to date, as the market priced in global and domestic downside risks.
With Parliament dissolved three days after the budget was tabled, leaving it hanging, fund managers foresee the local bourse being battered amid the twin challenges of continued global uncertainty and political risks moving forward.
Are Malaysia's major street protests a thing of the past?
For slightly over a decade, the anti-establishment sentiment in Malaysia was closely associated with large turnouts at regularly organised street protests, which culminated in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition losing federal power in 2018 for the first time in history.
But in the four years since then, the most famous kick-starter of Malaysia's street protest scene - the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih), has moved away from holding mass rallies after it came under a new leadership, creating a vacuum that is clearly felt by activists.
The 15th general election, which looks set to be held in November, would potentially be the first Malaysian election since 2004 that is not happening hot on the heels of a rally organised by Bersih.
