Famili dan Politik Kepartian di Malaysia: Beberapa Pengamatan Budaya Politik

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to describe and analyse the role and significance of family and kinship ties in Malaysian politics. The focal point is on UMNO political leaders but similar issues affecting the constitution of non-Malay political leadership are also discussed. Arguably,family institutions and kinship ties are peripheral to actual political struggles but the legacy of feudalism and the continued existence of monarchical system in Malaysia do reveal the fact that status, descent and kinship ties are significant in determining leadership groups. This is especeally true in the case of UMNO leadership under Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn. Generally, although the tradition of family and kinship ties underlying UMNO leadership is somewhat eroded and replaced by soте socio-economic considerations resulting from rapid socio economic development of the 1980s, it does not mean that family and kinship have completely disappeared from Malaysian politics. This paper argues that factors such as social background, social network and kinship ties are still significant in determining political leadership, particularly UMNO leadership and thus the course of power struggle and political development in Malaysia.