The Role of Political Elites in the Development of New Villages in Malaysia

Jeck Seng Wee, Siew Nooi Phang, Samihah Khalil

Abstract


Political elites comprise a small group that has power and influence over the “others” in society. Basically, political elites play an important role in the decision-making process of the community. New Villages in Malaysia are influenced by political elites who are the representatives of the village community. These political elites are members of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a coalition party of the ruling political party. MCA's political elite play an important role in safeguarding the welfare and affairs of the New Village residents. New Villages refer to a Chinese New Village which is a re-settlement site set up during the Communist emergency period of British rule in Malaysia in the mid-1950s. The role of the MCA's political elite has helped to create the New Village Master Plan 2005 which serves as a guide and reference to the Federal Government and the State Government in the development of New Villages. However, limited provisions and unclear policies have resulted in New Villages facing a multitude of problems and have frustrated development in New Villages especially in tandem with the requirements of national development. The residents of New Villages are neglected, and many are experiencing social and economic problems. The paper evaluates these problems with reference to the role of local leaders and development objectives for New Villages in the context of national goals.


Full Text:

PDF

References


Chase, S. E. (2005). Narrative Inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches and voices. In NK Denzin & YS Lincoln (Eds) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (3rd Edition) pp. 651-679. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Fraenkel, J. R., & Wallen, N. E. (2007). How to design and evaluate research in education. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hairany, N. (1989). Pendapat umum dalam pembentukan dasar dan perkembangan politik di Malaysia: Satu renungan. Jurnal komunikasi, 5, 7-14.

Higley, J. (2008). Elite theory in political sociology, University of Texas at Austin.

Ho, H. L. (2004). Darurat 1948-1960: Keadaan sosial di Tanah Melayu. Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Malaya.

Keller, S. (1963). Beyond the ruling class. Strategic elites in modern society. New York: Random House.

Lasswell, H. D., Lerner, D., & Rothwell, C. E. (1952). The comparative study of elites: An introduction and bibliography. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution.

Lim, H. F., & Fong, T. Y. (2005). The new villages in Malaysia: The journey ahead. Kuala Lumpur: Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research.

Lim, H. F., & Soong, W. Y. (2002). Malaysian Chinese new villages after 50 years. (2nd ed.). Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies. (In Chinese).

Malaysian People’s Movement Party. (1986). New villages in Peninsular Malaysia: An overall analysis of their socioeconomic development trend and problems. Kuala Lumpur: Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia.

Marvick, D. (1976). Continuities in recruitment research: Towards a new model, in elite recruitment in democratic politics. In Eulau and Czudnowski, (Ed.), Elite recruitment in democratic politics: Comparative studies across nations. New York: Jon Wiley.

Mills, C. W. (1956). The power elite. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mohd, Z. M. S. (2003). Propaganda dalam darurat pertama di Malaysia, 1948-1960. Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Malaya.

New Villages Master Plan Report 2005. Ministry of Housing and Local Government. Kuala Lumpur.

O’Ballance, E. (1966). Malaya: The communist insurgent war, 1948-1960. London: Faber.

Pareto, V. (1915). The mind and society: A treatise on general sociology. New York: Dover.

Phang, S. N., & Tan, T. H. (2013). New villages in Malaysia: Living conditions and political trends. Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies, 2, 17 - 27.

Phang, S. N., & Tan, T. H. (2014). Re-positioning urban-based new villages in Malaysia towards sustainable living and a better quality of life. Journal of Governance & Development, 10, 141 – 167.

Polkinghorne, D. E. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis, Qualitative Studies in Education, 8(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839950080103

Putnam, R. D. (1976). The comparative study of political elites. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Rahimah, A. A. (1989). Pengantar sosiologi pembangunan. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Robson, C. (2011). Real world research: A resource for social-scientists and practitioner- researchers (3rd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Todaro, M. P. (1977). Economic development in the third world: An introduction to problems and policies in a global perspective. New York: Longman.

Weiss, M. L. (2013). Malaysia’s 13th general elections: Same result, different outcome. Asian Survey. 53, 1135-58. https://doi.org/10.1525/as.2013.53.6.1135

Welsh, B. (2013). Malaysian elections 2013: A step backward. Journal of Democracy, 23(4), 136 – 150. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2013.0066




DOI: https://doi.org/10.5296/jpag.v8i2.13001

Copyright (c) 2018 Jeck Seng Wee, Siew Nooi Phang, Samihah Khalil

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Journal of Public Administration and Governance  ISSN 2161-7104

Email: jpag@macrothink.org

Copyright © Macrothink Institute

To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the 'macrothink.org' domain to your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------