National Building, Transformasi, Reformasi … Deformasi?

Reformasi at a Critical Juncture: A Policy Brief for Malaysia’s Political Leadership

In his column “Parti Politik perlu baca isyarat rakyat, teroka jalan baru 2026” (Berita Harian, 2 January 2026), Dr Fauzi Shafie argues that Malaysian politics is approaching a decisive moment where elite narratives no longer align with popular anxieties. 

This essay extends that argument by situating reformasi within Malaysia’s longer historical evolution — nation-building, transformation, and now the risk of deformation — and frames the next two years as a narrow policy window that will determine whether reformasi matures or collapses into yet another institutional decay.

This is written not for mass mobilisation, but for policy elites and party leadership who shape state capacity, fiscal priorities, and reform sequencing.

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Something’s Gotta Give: Malaysia at a Political Deadlock

Using Marilyn Monroe’s unfinished film as a metaphor for a nation stuck between acts

Marilyn Monroe’s unfinished 1962 film Something’s Gotta Give has become a cultural metaphor for beautiful potential trapped in paralysis. Production stalled, tensions escalated, the old formula no longer worked, and the project collapsed before reinvention could occur. 

Malaysia’s contemporary politics feels eerily similar. The script is familiar, the actors well known, yet the plot refuses to move forward. Everyone senses that something has to give — but no one is willing to be the first to break the deadlock.

Malaysia today is not in crisis in the classical sense. The state still functions, elections occur, markets operate, and society remains broadly peaceful. 

Yet beneath the surface lies a persistent logjam: weak reform capacity, elite infighting, eroding public trust, and an economy caught between old rent-seeking structures and the demands of a more competitive, post-pandemic world. 

The political squabbles within PKR, PN, DAP, and UMNO/BN are not isolated dramas; they are symptoms of a system that has reached the limits of incrementalism.

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Will Hamzah take up the mantle as saviour of Malay Politics upon his return from Mekah today?

Hamzah Zainudin returns from Mekah today, and Malaysian politics pauses—briefly, dramatically, and perhaps unnecessarily—to ask a familiar question: is this the moment? 

In a political culture that has elevated airport arrivals, hospital discharges and umrah returns into moments of near-messianic anticipation, Hamzah’s homecoming is being watched like the final reel of a political thriller whose plot everyone claims to know but no one agrees on.

The speculation is simple, seductive, and dangerous: that upon his return, Hamzah will either give the green light—or slam the brakes—on a revived Muafakat Nasional, once again stitching UMNO and PAS together in the name of Malay unity, dignity, survival, or sheer desperation.

This renewed chatter is not happening in a vacuum. It is triggered by Dr Akmal Saleh’s call for UMNO to quit the Madani government—not via roof-hacking or backdoor acrobatics, but by assuming the noble posture of a “dignified opposition”. 

It is, on paper, a principled argument: UMNO cannot remain in a government allegedly crossing the 3R red lines, most notably the court’s rejection of the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s decree relating to Najib Razak’s sentence.

Behind that legal argument, however, sits a political truth too large to ignore: a significant segment of UMNO’s grassroots believes Najib is not merely convicted, but persecuted. Justice, to them, is no longer blind; it is selectively farsighted.

So the question is not whether Najib’s case matters—it clearly does—but whether it is a cause, or merely the latest excuse, for UMNO to escape a coalition that has become electorally radioactive among Malays.

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Maduro Out, Chevron In

If you squint hard enough, the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces looks less like a coup and more like a petrol-price policy wrapped in camouflage. 

Trump, never one to hide his priorities, seems to be saying: inflation is the enemy, oil is the cure, and Venezuela just happens to be sitting on the medicine cabinet. 

The Reuters report below gives the news; what follows is the uncomfortable, ironic, and occasionally absurd aftertaste.

Venezuela's Maduro in custody, Trump says US will run the country

By Susan Heavey and Jana Winter

January 4, 2026

Summary

• US launched attack on Venezuela, captured leader Maduro
• Trump says US to run Venezuela until a 'safe, proper and judicious transition'
• Trump says he is not afraid of putting 'boots on the ground'
• Maduro arrived in the US Saturday evening, hearing scheduled for Monday
• Global leaders urge adherence to international law, some criticize Maduro regime

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After Trump, truces and turmoil

World rings in 2026 under shadows of war, trade shocks 

The Star, Thursday 1 January 2026

SYDNEY: New Year's Eve revellers toasted the end of 2025 on Wednesday (Dec 31) waving goodbye to 12 months packed with Trump tariffs, a Gaza truce and vain hopes for peace in Ukraine.

It was one of the warmest years on record, the stifling heat stoking wildfires in Europe, droughts in Africa and deadly rains across South-East Asia.

There was a sombre tinge to celebrations in Australia's harbour city Sydney, the self-proclaimed "New Year's capital of the world".

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The Longest Silences Often Precede the Loudest Chaos

For much of the past year, Malaysian politics felt unusually quiet. Not calm, not resolved — just muted. 

Parliament convened without fireworks. Opposition MPs asked questions but rarely pushed hard. Political ceramah were sparse and perfunctory. Even social media outrage cycles felt shorter, less ferocious. 

After years of instability, coups, pandemics, and collapsing governments, the country appeared to have entered a lull.

A stable government. A reformist prime minister. A fatigued opposition. A public more concerned with prices than polemics.

But in Malaysian politics, silence is never empty. It is cumulative. And the longest silences often precede the loudest chaos.

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Merry Christmas to all readers

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