Parliamentary Behaviour of the Opposition Pakatan Rakyat in Malaysian Politics, 2008-2012
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PARLIAMENTARY BEHAVIOUR OF THE OPPOSITION PAKATAN RAKYAT IN MALAYSIAN POLITICS, 2008-2012 ARIFF AIZUDDIN BIN AZLANMalaya of FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA KUALA LUMPUR University2017 PARLIAMENTARY BEHAVIOUR OF THE OPPOSITION PAKATAN RAKYAT IN MALAYSIAN POLITICS, 2008-2012 ARIFF AIZUDDIN BIN AZLAN Malaya THESIS SUBMITTED IN FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF ofPHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA KUALA LUMPUR University 2017 UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA ORIGINAL LITERARY WORK DECLARATION Name of Candidate: Ariff Aizuddin Bin Azlan Registration/Matric No: AHA140027 Name of Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Project Paper/ Research Report/ Dissertation/ Thesis ("this Work"): Parliamentary Behaviour of the Opposition Pakatan Rakyat in Malaysian Politics, 2008-2012 Field of Study: Malaysian Politics (Political Science) I do solemnly and sincerely declare that: 1) I am the sole author/write of this Work; 2) This Work is original; 3) Any use of any work in which copyright exists was done by the way of fair dealing and for permitted purpose and any excerpt or extract from, or reference to or reproduction of any copyright work has been disclosed expressly and sufficiently and the title of the Work and its authorship have been acknowledged in this Work; 4) I do not have any actual knowledge nor do MalayaI ought reasonably to know that the making of this work constitutes an infringement of any copyright work; 5) I hereby assign all and every rights in the copyright to this Work to the University of Malaya ("UM"), who henceforthof shall be owner of the copyright in this Work and that any reproduction or use in any form or by any means whatsoever is prohibited without the written consent of UM having been first had and obtained; 6) I am fully aware that if in the course of making this Work. I have infringed any copyright whether intentionally or otherwise, I may be subject to legal action or any other action as may be determined by UM. Candidate‟s Signature: Date: Subscribed and solemnly declared before, Witness‟sUniversity Signature Date: Name: Designation: ii ABSTRACT This study examines the patterns of parliamentary behaviour of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) political parties in the Twelfth Parliament. The study is based upon two significance arguments: first, the opposition Pakatan Rakyat political parties (PAS, PKR, and DAP) for the first time collectively work as a single political force in the Twelfth Parliament; and second, the patterns of behaviour would likely trigger some responses and constraints from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government and at the same time would consolidate the oppositional coalition politically. The 2008 Malaysia‟s general election was held under very pressurized circumstances. Unfortunately, the election result indicated that the ruling BN was no longer politically durable and thus provided a new political vacuum for the opposition PR to emerge as part of national political alternatives. This is a qualitative study and therefore it will adopt the approach of “content analysis”Malaya as a research technique. The data were collected from primary sourcesof such as parliamentary debates (Hansards), government official documents, party‟s publications, interviews, and newspapers. As the secondary sources, books and articles were used. By using Shane Martin‟s Framework of Parliamentary and Legislative Behaviour, the study reveals that there are several PR patterns of behaviour evident in the 12th Parliament. These main and sub-patterns were manifested in the form of parliamentary struggle and were perceived as a counter-measure to the policies of the ruling BN government. Besides that, the study found that the parliamentaryUniversity constraints encountered by PR have led towards the consolidation of patterns of behaviour in the Twelfth Parliament. Finally, this study concluded that the parliamentary behaviour of Pakatan Rakyat has strengthened, empowered and consolidated the practice of oppositional parliamentary democracy and the emergence of the newly coined-term known as the “New Parliamentary Behaviour (NPB)”. iii ABSTRAK Tesis ini merupakan satu kajian sistematik berkenaan dengan tingkah-laku dan gelagat berparlimen dengan merujuk kepada gabungan parti-parti politik pembangkang yang dikenali sebagai Pakatan Rakyat (PR) di dalam Parlimen ke-12 di Malaysia. Kajian ini adalah berdasarkan dua hujah yang utama iaitu, pertama, parti pembangkang Pakatan Rakyat (PR) iaitu PAS, PKR dan DAP buat pertama kalinya beroperasi sebagai satu kuasa politik di dalam Parlimen ke-12. Kedua, corak tingkah-laku dan gelagat PR akan menyebabkan beberapa respons dan kekangan yang terhasil dari pihak kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN) dan pada waktu yang sama corak tersebut akan membawa kepada pengukuhan politik kepembangkangan PR. Malang sekali, keputusan pilihan raya umum 2008 menunjukkan bahawa BN tidak lagi secara politiknyaMalaya dapat bertahan dan malah ini telah mencipta satu ruang politik kepada pembangkang PR untuk muncul sebagai sebahagian daripada satu alternatif politik diof peringkat nasional. Ini adalah satu kajian yang menggunakan kaedah kualitatif di mana ia menggunakan pendekatan „analisa kandungan‟ sebagai satu teknik kajian. Sumber primer di dalam kajian ini diperoleh dari laporan parliamen, dokumen rasmi kerajaan, penerbitan parti, temu-bual dan surat khabar. Manakala sumber sekunder diperoleh dari buku dan artikel. Dengan menggunakan Teori Gelagat Berparlimen dan Legislatif yang diasaskan oleh Shane Martin, kajian ini mendapati bahawa ada beberapa corak gelagat berparlimen PR sewaktu Parlimen ke-12. Selain itu, kajianUniversity ini juga mendapati bahawa kekangan berparlimen yang dijangkakan oleh PR telah menuju ke arah satu tahap yang dipanggil pengukuhan kepembangkangan. Akhir sekali, kajian ini menyimpulkan bahawa gelagat berparlimen PR telah menguatkan, memperkasakan dan mengukuhkan demokrasi politik kepembangkangan dan kemunculan satu konsep baru yang dinamakan “Gelagat Berparlimen Baru”. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my undivided profound gratitude to my Creator, Lord of the Universe. Praise Be to Allah s.w.t. and His Beloved Prophet, Muhammad S.A.W. Each PhD scholar in the realm of academic has their own story and so do I. Embarking on a PhD study was a very lonely journey and was never an easy one. Provided with the inevitable hardships that I went through and now, finally I have made it to the zenith by God‟s Will. I, therefore, would like to thank to my principle supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zulkanain Abdul Rahman, for his time, patience, continuous support and never ending guidance in guiding me to make this dissertation possible. Thank you very much Dr. Zul for allowing me to take part in your scholarly path. My appreciation and profound gratitude also goes to my former Master‟s supervisor at the Department of Political Science, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Prof. Dr. Wahabuddin Ra‟ees. Prof, your words of encouragement has never been forgotten and embedded always in my thought. I wish also to record my deepest appreciation to Assoc.Malaya Prof. Dr. Joseph M. Fernando from University of Malaya, Prof. Dr. William Case from University of Nottingham and Prof. Dr. Wahabuddin Ra‟ees from International Islamic University Malaysia for reading the entire thesis and shared their valuable thoughts in orderof to improve further the analysis. To the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hanafi Hussin and also as the Chairman of Ph.D Viva Voce Committee, thank you very much for the comments, recommendations, and support. And to the Deputy Dean at the Dean‟s Office FASS, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shanthi A/P Thambiah, you were so kind to me especially in extending my SBUM scholarship and without your kind assistance, I may not be able to complete the study on time. And to all staff in the Department of History, especially the Head Department of History, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja, all of you deserved my humble thanks. Last but not least, my beloved wife Nurul Fashahah Bt. Hj. Mohamad Amri, and the rest of those who had assisted me during the period of study, due to the reasons of space, I could not Universitywrite down all the names but that does not mean that your efforts has not been acknowledged. Only God knows how much I am profoundly indebted to all of you. Thanks, indeed! Ariff Aizuddin Azlan Bangi Avenue, PhD Candidate in Malaysian Politics, Selangor Department of History, 2017 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya (UM) v TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration Page ........................................................................................ ii Abstract ..................................................................................................... iii Abstrak ...................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgement...................................................................................... v Table of Contents ...................................................................................... vi List of Tables.............................................................................................. ix List of Abbreviations ................................................................................ x INTRODUCTION Introduction ..................................................................................................