Moving away from the consociational model
Although a consociational democracy accepts a diminished form of parliamentary democracy for political and social stability, the extent to which Malaysia has deviated even from its initial state has resulted in Malaysia being defined as a semi-authoritarian regime.
Greg Lopez, New Mandala
I argue in an article in Aliran, that Malaysia’s ‘consociational model’ as practised by the ruling coalition no longer works. I advocate that Malaysians would be better served if they started working together with each other directly, instead of relying on elites to resolve their challenges.
Here are excerpts from the article:
On the consociational model
Consociational politics is based on the idea that conflict resolution in divided societies is best achieved through the accommodation of the political elites representing the salient segments of society and institutionally anchored by inclusive coalitions. As noted by its formulator (the Dutch political scientist Arendt Lijphart), consociational democracy is a,
…government by elite cartel designed to turn a democracy with fragmented political culture into a stable democracy.
In other words, the consociational model assumes:
- that there are deep differences among the salient segments in society (often coalescing around ethnicity, religion or regional groupings in Malaysia);
- these differences are insurmountable;
- that these salient segments are incapable of mediating these differences by themselves; and
- that these segments are incapable of regulating their behaviour in the face of these intractable differences. This ultimately leads to violent or deadly outcomes. Hence, only the leaders of these salient segments – the elite cartel – can overcome these challenges. This is what leaders of the BN would have Malaysians believe.
The elite cartel are supposed to overcome these challenges – which ordinary citizens are unable to address – through four principles that are foundational to the consociational model.
The first principle, the grand coalition, is an executive that not only has the votes necessary in an election to secure a majority but includes all important salient segments (or as many as possible). It also entails distribution of leadership position to different groups in other types of institutions and involves informal elite cooperation.
The second principle is cultural or segmental autonomy which provides a degree of self-regulation for each salient segment (usually coalesced around ethnicity, religion or regional identities such as constitutional guarantees of the rights of minorities).
The third principle is proportionality where proportional representation in legislature/s but also other aspects of public life (such as appointments to positions in the bureaucracy and state-owned corporations).
And the fourth and final principle is the minority or mutual veto, which enables representatives of each segmental group – even the weakest – to reject proposed policies of the grand coalition that affects the group.
