New Mandala

As Malaysians head to the 14th General Elections (GE14), the stakes have seldom been higher. The nature of the nation is now fiercely contested. While many Malaysians see the GE14 election season as another fraught debate over the core economic issues of the cost of living, inflation, and health and education infrastructure, there are also renewed fissures over the roles of religion and culture in determining Malaysia in the 21st century. And all of these issues arising at a time of great uncertainty in the region, as China rises and the United States retreats. In this discussion, recorded at an ANU Malaysia Institute—New Mandala public forum in Kuala Lumpur on 8 February 2018, Merdeka Center’s Ibrahim Suffian, Universiti Malaya Professor Edmund Terence Gomez, Malaysia Muda convener and lawyer Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, and ANU historian Dr Amrita Malhi unravel some of these themes with the latest available data and analyses with New Mandala Contributing Editor Kean Wong. You can also listen to an interview with N