In the paper ‘The Fall of the Liberal Party of Australia: Lessons for Malaysian liberals’ published today by the Malaysia Think Tank, I argued that Malaysians who subscribe to a liberal ideology need to take cognisance of the defeat suffered by the Liberal Party of Australia in 2007.

Long the premier conservative force in Australian politics, the Liberals, along with their ally, the National Party, are now playing opposition in all but one state.

john howard malaysia visit 301106 talking The Liberals had the added indignity of having their leader, former prime minister John Howard defeated in his own seat.

Debates are rife over the viability of the Liberal brand. It can be said that part of the problems for the Liberal Party was that it was never able to reconcile its economic rationalist, socially conservative wing with the more moderate elements of their party.

The Liberal Party was founded in 1944 by Robert Menzies who had previously served as Prime Minister of Australia under the United Australia Party (UAP). The Liberal Party had as its predecessors the UAP, the Nationalist Party and the Commonwealth Liberal Party. The

Commonwealth Liberal Party was a fusion of the Protectionist and Free Trade parties. The former was ironically more economically populist in their outlook than the latter.

The Nationalists and UAP in turn came about through mergers with Australian Labour Party defectors at various points in Australia's history over conscription and economic issues. Both the UAP and the Nationalist Party eventually formed an alliance with the Country (later National) Party which holds until this day as the 'Coalition'.

In reaction to the virtual decimation of UAP in 1944, Menzies advocated the formation of a new anti-Labour party in Australia. The Liberal Party of Australia emerged out of a collection of the old UAP as well as conservative women’s, youth and business groups. Though conservative, Menzies expanded their ideology to also include the populist ethos of the earlier-era.

Liberals badly divided

The Liberal Party (which continued its predecessor's Coalition with the Country/National party) won power in 1949 after Australians grew disillusioned with Labour’s attempts to expand its socialist policies. Menzies enjoyed great success playing on the electorate’s Cold War fears of communism.

He also won support through his effective economic and welfare policies. His successors, however, fell out of touch with Australia’s changing demographics and were defeated in 1972.

Returning to power under Malcolm Fraser in 1975, the Liberals then adopted a neo-liberal, economic rationalist approach to governance. They also grew more socially conservative and traditionalist in their approach. Opposition to this led to their defeat in 1983.

During this period, the Liberals were badly divided and often changed leaders as a result of the their repeated electoral defeats. There was a growing conflict between their social liberal and economic rationalist/socially conservative wings, which finally was resolved in favour of the latter when John Howard won office in 1996. Howard championed the ‘Australian battlers’ - mainstream Australians who felt alienated by the policies of the Labour Government.

Howard's conservatism eventually took its toll on the Liberals. His social conservatism alienated minorities and even some mainstream Australians. Howard’s use of the ‘War on Terror’ and the issue of asylum seekers to gain political capital were widely seen as opportunistic.

Furthermore, his attempts to reform Australia’s industrial relations cost him the support of the nation’s working and middle-classes. His intolerance of ideological dissent in his party, as well as his refusal to hand power to Peter Costello, his long-serving deputy, led to the perception that Howard was only interested in staying in power, thus contributing to his defeat in 2007.

In the paper ‘The Fall of the Liberal Party of Australia: Lessons for Malaysian liberals’ that I authored for the Malaysia Think Tank, I explained that there are many lessons Malaysian liberals can learn from the experience of their Australian counterparts, especially now that our country is experiencing some major political challenges.

Lessons for Malaysians

First, it is important for Malaysian liberals to build broad-based coalitions to pursue their agenda.

malaysian chinese community people 170807 sundry shop One of Menzies’ greatest successes was that he was able to forge a cohesive party out of disparate elements that was conservative yet progressive.

Second, when it comes to politics, the liberal agenda can only succeed by winning support from the centre. All of the Australian Liberals and their predecessors’ victories, as well as defeats, were caused by them either capturing or being out of step with the sentiment of the electorate in the centre-ground. Pragmatism is essential in both campaigning and governing.

Third, it is vital for a cohesive succession plan to be set in place. The Australian Liberal Party at several points in history, especially in Howard's era, suffered from the lack of this.

Finally, Malaysian liberals must remain united. The Australian Liberal Party splits in the 1980s did much to keep them out of power. Having said that, the need for unity should not negate the even greater requirement for intellectual and ideological independence.

Howard’s alienation of the social liberal wing in his party broke the broad coalition that Menzies formed. By insisting on a rigid, conservative doctrine, Howard split his party and worse, lost the support of the ‘Aussie battlers’ who kept him in power for so long.

This case study of the Australian Liberal Party holds lessons for both social and economic liberals in Malaysia, especially if they want to become a potent political force, be it by working from within the various existing political parties or by setting up a new Malaysian Liberal Party.

KEITH LEONG is a contributing author to WauBebas and a researcher at Isis Malaysia. The paper 'The Fall of the Liberal Party of Australia: Lessons for Malaysian liberals' can be downloaded from WauBebas.