• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.53-82
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• 2018

The $14^{th}$ general election which should be held by August 2018 has been a dominant factor for Malaysian politics, economy, social changes and foreign policy in 2017. UMNO, the dominant party within the ruling governmental coalition, has focused on securing Malay support, voters which made them to sought political cooperation with PAS, Malaysia's Islamist opposition party. A consequent event followed by the strategic ties between the two parties is the rise of political Islam in Malaysia though PAS' 'Islamization' or 'desecularization' has never been adopted by UMNO. The rise of political Islam and Malay support have become the most important factor for the next election, which increasingly enhanced the role of 3R of Malaysia politics; Race, Religion, and Royalty. The Pakatan Harapan (PH), the newly formed opposition coalition without PAS, has elected Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister, as its candidate for prime minister. Malaysian economy and foreign policy seem to be subordinated to politics. Stabilizing ringgit and restoring economic growth enabled the Najib's government to reveal 'election budget' for 2018. Najib has spoken out Islam-related international issues including the Rohingya crisis and Jerusalem issue. It is to some extent the extension of domestic politics. The rise of political Islam will be a highly influential not only in the coming election but in the political and social development in the aftermath of the election.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.77-114
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• 2018

The purpose of this article is to verify whether recent political change in Thailand and the Philippines is temporarily shown "democratic recession" or "returning to authoritarianism". For the purpose this research establishes three propositions based on previous academic researches of political change. The is to verify characteristics of liberal democracy based on democratic procedures and institutions as well as civilian control over the military. The is to analyze the characteristics of authoritarianism such as the control over individual freedom and rights, concentration of power, and populist ruling behavior contrary to constitutionalism. The last one, , is to check either the coincidence or discrepancy between democratic institutions and popular understanding of democracy during democratic transitions. The finding through testing those propositions is that recent political change in two countries is more likely "returing to authoritarianism" rather than provisional "democratic recession". Implications of the finding has two aspects. One is that the only change in democratic procedures and institutions including the competition among political parties and peaceful change of governments are not enough to ensure a successful transition to liberal democracy. The other is that a half-democracy lacking the change of popular understanding and belief toward democracy as well as democratic practices cannot survive long enough. These are confirmed through this study on the cases of Thailand and the Philippines.