Elections and Ethnic Tension in Malaysia and Singapore

• In Event: 96. Divisive Politics of Southeast Asia

Abstract

Research from outside of Asia suggests that electoral mobilization increases the salience of ethnicity. Does this hold for the diversecountries of Malaysia and Singapore as well? While ethnicity continues tostructure many aspects of life in both countries, they diverge in one important way: the government of Malaysia leverages ethnicity forpolitical mobilization, while the government of Singapore has made efforts to depoliticize it. This provides a unique opportunity to understand how different forms of political mobilization affect the relationship between elections and ethnic salience. This paper examines changes to ethnic tensions prior to general elections in Malaysia and Singapore between 2004 and the present by using data from Google Trends. Specifically, I compare variation in the prevalence of racially-charged Google searches―which I argue closely reflect wider changes in ethnic tensions―as elections approach. My initial work on this suggests that Malaysia’s elections see a strong increase in ethnic tension, while those in Singapore do not heighten tensions. This provides insights not only into ethnic relations in these two countries, but also adds an important refinement to the
general theory.

Author

• Kai Ostwald, University of British Columbia