The rise of Oligarchy in Malaysia

Merriam Webster Dictionary define Oligarchy as:-

1. government by the few;


2. a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes;

Watching the political development in Malaysia, from the bizarre right down to the idiotic turns of events, have made me ponder if Malaysia indeed practices democracy.

Take for example, how our Prime Minister is elected. But wait, he wasn't elected! Yes, he is an elected member of Parliament, but there were no election mechanism at all that would determine if Malaysians in general, and UMNO party members in particular have chosen him as the Prime Minister of Malaysia! He had ascended to that seat by means of a "power transition" between him and former prime minister Abdullah Badawi.

The manner that "power transition" was being handled made me wonder if the Prime Minister seat is the heirloom of these few selected families, just like how oligarchy works.

Since our Second Prime Minister Tun Razak, the seat of Prime Minister had and have been from only a few closely knitted individuals many of them from the same family: they are related to Tun Razak.

Third Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn is the brother in law of Tun Razak.

Our current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib is the son of Tun Razak. The Razak family indeed have a stranglehold onto the Premiership of Malaysia Government today.

Our Home Minister is Datuk Seri Hishammuddin (the son of Tun Hussein Onn).

Khairy Jamaluddin (the son in law of the Fifth Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi) is currently the youth chief of UMNO. (The strongest party in Barisan Nasional, the ruling coalition in the government.)

Datuk Mukhriz, the Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry is the third son of our Fourth Prime Minister Tun Mahathir.

If we Malaysians allow the status quo to remain and let the Barisan Nasional regime to continue ruling Malaysia, we could expect that Datuk Seri Hishamuddin, Datuk Mukhriz or Jamaluddin to one day to ascend to the throne of Prime Minister just like their dads. The ascend would be in the form of power transition plan just like how their fathers (or father-in-law) ascended to become the Prime Minister of Malaysia. The power to rule will be in the hands of the Razak family, the Abdullah family, and the Mahathir family. The transformation from democracy to oligarchy in Malaysia would then be completed and these families would be the new ruling elite class of oligarchy Malaysia.

We, Malaysians might have to chant long live the Prime Minister one day...