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Bringing together a group of both international and Malaysian scholars, Minorities Matter: Malaysian Politics and People Volume III, is the third instalment in the 'Malaysian Politics and People' series, a series which has tracked Malaysian politics and society from the outcome of GE12 to the present day. Published in the aftermath of the fall of the BN government, Minorities Matter looks at the contemporary situation of Malaysian politics and society with a particular focus on those who are often left out of the national narrative, minorities, to understand the ways in which minority groups, from women to East Malaysians, the Orang Asli, refugees and more, have contributed towards, and been affected by, political change in Malaysia. With a particular focus on the problem of political culture, Minorities Matter highlights both the political and social changes, as well as continuities, witnessed since the 14th General Election highlighting, through the lens of minority groups, the contemporary contestations which now dominate Malaysian politics.

Bringing together a group of both international and Malaysian scholars, Minorities Matter: Malaysian Politics and People Volume III, is the third instalment in the 'Malaysian Politics and People' series, a series which has tracked Malaysian politics and society from the outcome of GE12 to the present day. Published in the aftermath of the fall of the BN government, Minorities Matter looks at the contemporary situation of Malaysian politics and society with a particular focus on those who are often left out of the national narrative, minorities, to understand the ways in which minority groups, from women to East Malaysians, the Orang Asli, refugees and more, have contributed towards, and been affected by, political change in Malaysia. With a particular focus on the problem of political culture, Minorities Matter highlights both the political and social changes, as well as continuities, witnessed since the 14th General Election highlighting, through the lens of minority groups, the contemporary contestations which now dominate Malaysian politics.

Since the uprising in 2011, Tunisia is seen as a political lab whose experiences impact the entire region. The return to the political scene of the Islamists of the Ennahdha Party, and their democratic ascension to power, came as a surprise, if not a shock, to many international and local observers. The party became a key actor beyond national borders and took a step further by marking its 10th Congress with the announcement of the separation of its political and religious activities. The Tunisian experience is represented as an example for other Islamist parties so should we see the secularization of Ennahdha's discourse as being at the forefront of the Islamist movement? Or has the party already gone beyond Islamism, and in fact created a rupture with other Islamist parties? Re-branding does not imply a change in ideology but a change of perception, inside and outside the party. This analysis looks at the perception of the reform intended by Ennahdha from the point of view of foreign Islamist parties in the context of the 10th Party Congress in May 2016.

This chapter is a short exploration of the relationship between political parties and gangs through the case study of Pekida. The articulation of this relationship is the central concept of this study: we define it as 'connivance militancy'. In our scheme of thought, a gang that is involved in political actions, whether out of pragmatism or ideology, becomes a connivance militant group. It is because gangs do have an existence out of politics that they are seen as 'opportunist'. Our main argument is that gangs are the mirrored expression of the ambiguities of society; thus they play a role in the system as shadow extensions of political parties in the public sphere. This chapter exposes the context that favoured the development of connivance militancy, the nature of Pekida and its satellite groups, and finally reveals the relationship between gangs and the ruling party (UMNO). So, if UMNO is on a honeymoon with gangsters, is this opportunist relationship ephemeral or the symptom of a systemic phenomenon?

This paper looks at the genesis and development of the Jama'ah Islah Malaysia (JIM), a modernist-reformist Islamist organisation that today has played a vital and visible role in the political landscape of Malaysian politics. Little is known about the early genesis of JIM, and how it began in the 1970s and 1980s as a student-based cadre organisation, created by Malaysian Muslim students studying abroad in Europe and North America. JIM's roots therefore lie in the Islamic Representative Council (IRC) that was a semi-underground student-cadre movement that was created outside Malaysia, and which aimed to bring about the Islamisation of Malaysian society through the process of social and political mobilisation. Working through the archives of JIM today and interviewing the foundermembers of JIM and the IRC, this paper is the first historical account of the formation and development of IRC and JIM to be published.