Abstract
This article attempts to study the continuity and discontinuity in the character of Malaysia's political leadership from 1967 to 1977 by analyzing the political elites, mainly cabinet members. This period was selected because it was during this time that the so-called 'May Thirteenth Incident' occurred in 1969, and the character of Malaysia's political leadership changed significantly, from the leadership of Tunku Abdul Rahman to that of Tun Abdul Razak.
The analysis consists of three parts : 1) hisotrical examination of the political background of this newly born country, especially in terms of The Alliance, Communalism and Socialist Movement, 2) analysis of political elites before 'May Thirteenth' to characterize the political leadership of Tunku Rahman, and 3) analysis of political elites after 'May Thirteenth' to clarify the characteristics of Tun Razak's political leadership, which, the writer believes, remains unchanged and vivid in Malaysia's present regime of Datuk Hussein Onn.
As it is widely known, Malaysia's political stability is largely dependent upon the successful coexistence of different racial groups composing this multiracial society, particularly Malays and Chinese. The Alliance, it is said, was a compromise of upper class elites from each racial community, and was successful under Tunku's leadership until 'May Thirteenth Incident' in 1969. After three years of Emergency during which Tun Razak took power, his political leadership appeared different from that of Tunku in the following two points : firstly, he tried to consolidate the government's power to oppress the nation's two enemies, communalism and communism respectively, and secondly, he tried very hard to support 'Bumiputras' to eliminate their disadvantages in everyday life. The latter point was set into a concrete form with the New Economic Policy (eradication of poverty regardless of race and restructuring society by abolishing the old social structure in which economic function and racial position are identical), which was energetically carried out during the Second Malaysia Plan, from 1971 to 1975.
Analyzing cabinet members of Tun Razak's regime in 1975, the writer proposes that there are five categories of political elites, 1) the modern bureaucratic elite, 2) the traditional Islamic elite, 3) the modern=traditional elite, 4) the adaptive technical elite, and 5) the elites from East Malaysia. He also suggests that the uprising of the third category of elites mainly characterizes contemporary Malaysian political leadership, as evidenced by the selection of Dr. Mahathir, a typical figure of the third category, as deputy prime minister by Datuk Hussein Onn in early 1976.
In conclusion, the writer observes that Malaysia's present political leadership is a complex of plural political elite groups with the modern=traditional elite group as its core. This group is the most politically-oriented, with the special character of modernity, as well as having easy accessibility to the local Malays, and being surrounded by modern bureaucratic elites and traditional Islamic elites, which in turn are surrounded by other elite groups.
