民主化？檢視馬來西亞「民主化」歷程，2008-2014

馬來西亞自獨立建國以來，長期處於一黨獨大、威權體制；過去相關研究多以種族威權民主、偽民主、不自由民主體制、半民主體制等來形容馬來西亞的政治體制。2008 年03 月08 日，第12 屆馬來西亞全國大選，反對陣營的人民公正黨、伊斯蘭黨以及人民行動黨贏得空前的勝利，再次打破執政黨國陣三分之二國會議席的壟斷優勢，隨後還組成了「人民陣線聯盟」（簡稱：民聯）。此突破也讓馬來西亞進入社會運動的全盛時期，相關學者與政治觀察家多以「民主化」來註解2008 的大選結果。本研究將分析1999 年至2013 年的全國性選舉與州議會選舉，以及透過極端立意抽樣與社會運動菁英進行訪談，發現過去以「民主化」來解讀308 選舉結果，皆視馬來西亞為一個同質的社會來，以「國家」作為分析的單位。但綜觀馬來西亞的政治變遷，有許多州屬並沒有多大的改變，甚至某些州屬從獨立到至今依然保持不變。因此，308 的選舉結果的改變並非全國普遍性的變化，不足以「民主化」來註解。另一方面，民主政治能否深化鞏固成為一種生活方式，人民普遍是否具有堅定的民主意識至為關鍵。但民眾對公民運動與政治事務，所表現出「被動」、「冷漠」的態度，顯示出民眾民主意識的薄弱，此外，社會運動出現的頻率或動員能力，並不足以代表人民民主意識的深化與實踐。因此「308」以來的政治參與（國會大選）以及頻繁的社會運動，不足堪作為馬來西亞民主化的標記。

關鍵字

馬來西亞；民主化；選舉；社會運動

並列摘要

Since the coming of independence to Malaysia there has been a long period of one-party dominance by an authoritarian regime. Malaysia has been described variously as an “ethnic-authoritarian-democratic state”, a “pseudo-democracy”, an “illiberal democracy”, or even a “semi-democracy”. At the general elections on 8th March 2008, the primary opposition parties, namely, the People’s Justice Party (PKR), the Democratic Action Party (DAP), and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), formed an alliance called Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) and won its first ever “victory”. For the first time the ruling National Front (BN) coalition lost the two-thirds parliamentary majority. This breakthrough took Malaysia into a heyday of social movements, in which many scholars and political observers commented freely on the democratization process resulting from the 2008 election results. By examining the Malaysian general elections and state elections in 1999 and 2003, and by conducting in-depth interviews with the Social Movements activists through a purposive sampling method, this study challenges the mainstream annotation of the 2008 Malaysia General election in 2013 as being emblematic of democratization. Previous studies customarily focus merely on “The State” as a unit of analysis to examine the process of democratization in Malaysia, misrepresenting Malaysia as a homogenous society. In fact, in view of the historical process of political changes in Malaysia, this study discloses the fact that the 2008 Malaysia General Election did not instigate a enormous change in the political climate in many states, some states have even remained unchanged since Malaysia’s independence. Therefore, the political change of the Malaysia 2008 General Elections does not necessary reflect the democratization process in Malaysian society as a whole. Consolidation of democracy can become a way of life and, generally, developing a strong sense of democracy is crucial for such development. The “passive” and “alienation” attitudes of Malaysian nations towards civic movements and political affairs showed their lack of democratic consciousness. It would be erroneous to consider that the frequent emergence and mobilization of social movements in society equate with high democratic consciousness and practices among the Malaysian nations. Further to this, this study thus concludes that the political participation of the Malaysian nations, as well as the emergence of social movements since the 2008 Malaysian General Elections should not be overly marked as the development of a democratization process in Malaysian society.