Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Malaysia’s Neo-Conservative Intellectuals

This article discusses the role played by neo-conservative intellectuals during the tenure of Malaysia’s fifth prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (2003-2009). Abdullah’s leadership was distinguished by two qualities which arguably qualify it as “neo-conservative,” in terms of revival of policies from a bygone era and the launching of political reforms within the framework of a conservative regime led by the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party. Using the theoretical experiences of dominant conservative regimes in the Soviet Union, Japan, China and Taiwan, the present authors are of the view that the policies and approach undertaken by Abdullah constitute a sharp departure from those of his predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, for twenty-two years (1981-2003). Particularly eliciting controversy was the trust Abdullah put into a team of young advisors led by his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin. In this article, we look at how these young neo-conservative intellectuals, together with several identifiable individuals, brought about reforms in Abdullah’s leadership and impacted UMNO politics. We discover that, notwithstanding their enthusiasm for progressive reforms, the intellectuals had under-estimated the strength of reactionary and conservative elements existing within an UMNO-based interlocking system, hence reducing them to an anomaly amongst these forces. The perception deficit befalling these reformists was aggravated by their encroachment into the political economy of the UMNO rentiers and prevailing weaknesses in Abdullah’s support system. The article seeks to contribute to the discourse on intra-elite conflicts in dominant conservatives regimes, such as have taken place in dominant parties like the UMNO.

阿卜杜拉·艾哈邁德·巴達維與馬來西亞的新保守主義知識分子

本文探討在馬來西亞第五任首相阿卜杜拉·艾哈邁德·巴達維任職期間（2003－2009）新保守派知識分子的作用。巴達維的執政被稱為“新保守主義”是基於兩點：重新啟用以前的政策以及在由執政黨馬來民族統一機構（巫統）領導下的保守體系框架下施行政治改革。基於主要施行保守體製的蘇聯、日本、中國和臺灣所提供的理論經驗，本文作者認為，巴達維的政策和策略與其前任，擔任馬來西亞總理二十二年（1981－2003）的馬哈蒂爾·穆罕默德相比有大幅度的偏離 。尤其引人爭議的是巴達維對由他的女婿凱裏嘉馬魯丁領導的一批年輕顧問隊伍的信賴。本文攷察這些年輕的保守派知識分子及一些知名人士如何為阿卜杜拉的執政帶來變革及其對巫統政治的影響。我們發現，儘管熱衷於進步改革，這些知識分子低估了巫統錯綜複雜的體系內反對派和保守成分的力量，從而被這些勢力所孤立。這些改革者洞察力的缺乏，加之他們對巫統政治經濟租利者利益的侵犯，以及阿卜杜拉的支持體系的眾多弱點， 成為他們失敗的主要原因。本文希望對統治政黨巫統的實例分析將對理解保守體製中精英之間的衝突問題有所裨益。

Translated from English by Xin Huang