It may be too early to gauge but one of the most important outcomes of the Hindraf incident to date is the way it has opened the public space to close examination of the ideology of Malay dominance (Ketuanan Melayu) and its equivalent Islam-dominant ideology in the religious sphere, and the impact of these divisive policies on the rights of minorities.

Already, Indian NGO groups in a rare meeting with the prime minister following the detention of Hindraf leaders have requested the government to establish a Department of Non-Muslim Affairs that can take up the religious grievances of non-Muslims and help them overcome the obstacles they face from a Malay/Muslim dominant polity and bureaucracy that appears unable or unwilling to exercise fairness in protecting the basic religious and civic rights of the non-Muslim minorities.

What is clear – even if the Hindraf rally had not taken place - is that present mechanisms for non-Muslim concerns and grievances are totally inadequate. After initially indicating that the government would consider the establishment of the department as part of the civil service machinery, the prime minister has since back-tracked and argued that the existing BN structure is adequate in dealing with the religious and socio-cultural concerns of non-Muslims.

The larger ripple effects of the Hindraf protest campaign will probably not be discernible until the results of the country’s elections – expected as early as March 2008 - are tallied and its impact on Indian and other voters in the country assessed.

The political ramifications of the BN losing the Indian vote in the coming elections are not likely to be calamitous in view of the BN’s stranglehold on most Malay majority areas and the nature of rural-urban weighting in the national electoral system which guarantees a disproportionate importance to rural voters compared with their urban counterpart.

At the same time, the opposition parties are well aware that although there is no single parliamentary or state assembly constituency where the Indian voters constitute the majority of the electorate, they know that Indian voters represent over 10 percent of the electorate in 62 Parliamentary constituencies and 138 state assembly constituencies and they will play an important factor in determining the electoral outcome in these areas.

According to DAP’s Lim Kit Siang, the Indian voters will be the ‘kingmakers’ in 28 Parliamentary and 78 state assembly seats in Peninsular Malaysia since they constitute more than 15 percent of the electorate. They can exercise a decisive influence as to who wins or loses in these constituencies.

Royalty speaks up

During 2007, too, support for more openness in the political system and for the authorities to pay greater heed to the many contentious issues of good governance came from an unlikely source - the Malay rulers.

The lead in the emergence of a more engaged monarchy in the affairs of the nation can be attributed to Sultan Azlan Shah, the Sultan of Perak and his son, Raja Nazrin Shah, the Raja Muda.

Sultan Azlan Shah called for major reforms to the judiciary in view of reports of disturbing events touching on the integrity of its members. This call for reform from a Ruler, who had spent a great deal of his life in pivotal positions in the Malaysian judiciary and was in a unique position to assess its qualities and shortcomings, has undoubtedly been a major factor in the government finally giving in to the public outcry for a royal commission to investigate the Lingam Tape incident.

The Raja Muda has been even more forthright than his father in sharing his views with the public on a wide range of contentious and sensitive subjects, including racial polarisation, religious tolerance, corruption, good governance, the independence of the judiciary and the need for the government to deal with problems through dialogue and negotiation with key stakeholders such as enlightened social movements.

The simmering sense of public outrage during the year - cutting across ethnic and class lines – in fact had culminated just a few days before the Hindraf rally in the largest anti-government protest in more than a decade.

An estimated 20,000-30,000 marchers converged in a march in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 10 to deliver a memorandum petition to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong on urgent reforms needed to the country’s electoral system to ensure that it did not continue to be unfairly tilted in favor of the ruling party.

The ability of the predominantly civil society organisers to mobilise so many protestors indicates a growing body of citizenry concerned about the integrity and fairness of the electoral process and willing to take to the streets to stand up for their basic rights of assembly and expression.

Challenging the status quo

It could be that the BN leadership may simply ignore the various statements of concern from individual Rulers and members of the royalty on the way the country is being run and their publicly articulated guidance on the need for higher standards of governance and greater tolerance for dissent.

Also, the split within BN ranks may well be contained, given the enormous resources of the ruling party and its tremendous capacity to coopt or coerce dissenting elements into staying passive or compliant within the fold of the system.

The losses that may eventuate from the Hindraf-inspired dissent may also prove to be smaller than expected or even illusionary during the coming elections as the BN’s and Umno’s spin machinery (the latter is especially adept at playing on Malay and non-Malay fears of political instability through the use of the official mass media) goes into overdrive.

Certainly, no astute political observer in the country expects the BN to lose its power and control over the country even if the opposition parties can put up a much better showing than during the last elections.

However, what appears different this time from earlier occasions may be the rise of a formidable body of political and civil society activists no longer isolated by their lack of access to the mainstream media and its under-reporting - or politically-biased reporting - of issues of vital public importance.

Making full use of the Internet surge and the channel of phone text messages to get alternative news and views across, these activists and citizen journalists are adding their voice where it matters and challenging the status quo on an entire spectrum of subjects that resonate with the larger population – bread and butter issues, traffic jams, corruption, abuse of power, and other aspects of daily life and governance.

These dissident voices may be ignored in the short run but it would be a foolish or shortsighted government that fails to recognise the growing public restiveness on the imperfections of the BN system of government and the culture of opportunism, greed and self-aggrandisement that it has spawned in its half-century of rule, and on the need for wide-ranging reforms if the country is to move ahead.

Read Part I here .

----------------------------------------------------------------- DR LIM TECK GHEE is director of the Centre for Policy Initiatives. The above is a summary of a paper he presented at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Regional Outlook Forum 2008 early last month. The full version may be viewed here .