Malaysia: the 2020 putsch for Malay Islam supremacy

Many people were surprised by the sudden fall of Mahathir Mohamad and the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government on 21 February 2020, barely two years after winning the historic May 2018 general elections. This article argues that the fall was largely due to the following factors: the ideology of Ketuanan Melayu Islam (Malay Islam Supremacy); the Mahathir-Anwar dispute; Mahathir’s own role in trying to reduce the role of the non-Malays in the government; and the manufactured fear among the Malay polity that the Malays and Islam were under threat. It concludes that the majority of the Malay population, and the Malay establishment, are not ready to share political power with the non-Malays