Ethnic Chinese Politics in East Malaysia, 1945-2018: From Timber-tycoons to Sarawak Regionalism (Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia Series)

Ngu Ik Tien explores how Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional (BN) regime-once celebrated as a model of consociational democracy-achieved broad political domination through its structures and systems across the country, including in the Chinese-majority municipality of Sibu in Sarawak.However, the study reveals how the regime deviated from ideal consociational principles, ultimately alienating ethnic minorities and fueling the rise of subnational regionalism. The book focuses primarily on the role of Chinese timber tycoons under the leadership of the Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP).Their influence over local social and political domains enabled them to broadly dominate local society.Through these local institutions, they established deeply rooted patron-client networks, parts of which were integrated into the Sarawak Barisan Nasional (SBN) machinery.However, growing local opposition meant that even politically well-connected timber tycoons could never achieve full domination.The increasing