It’s been 70 years since the first General Elections in Malaya in 1955, and 61 years since we voted for the first time as a new nation called Malaysia in 1964. From the era of one-party dominance under the Alliance and then Barisan Nasional, to the historic change of government in 2018, our electoral journey has been an incredible one.

In that time, we’ve gone from a nation that didn’t think it was possible to change a government to a nation that believes we can change our government at anytime.

In many ways, we’re still going through a maturing process—figuring out what kind of democracy we want to be. On today’s show, we’re taking a step back to reflect on 70 years of elections in Malaysia: how far we've come, what’s worked, what hasn’t, and the critical reforms we still need to build a fairer, more democratic future.

In this episode, we speak to Danesh Prakash Chacko, Director of Tindak Malaysia.

Tindak Malaysia has an event coming up called 70 Years of General Elections: Shaping Malaysian Democracy, happening on the 26th & 27th of July at the Trident Events (MCNCC) Event Hall.

Click here if you’d like to register for the event.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Produced by: Dashran Yohan

Presented by: Dashran Yohan

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Categories:  politics,  Law/Activism

Tags:  the bigger picture,  beyond the ballot box,  electoral reform,  malaysian elections,  first past the post,  mixed member proportional representation,  electoral commission,  democracy,  automatic voter registration,