The Power and Perils of Elections: Indonesia and Malaysia in 2018-19

Join Professors Meredith Weiss and Jeremy Menchik as they discuss how Malaysia and Indonesia have been rocked by election politics in recent months. Malaysia's May 2018 election saw the unprecedented victory by the opposition, while in a shocking development, Indonesia's President Joko Widodo choose a hardline conservative cleric as his Vice President candidate for the April 2019 elections. What explains these striking developments? What do these elections mean for the future of the economy, civil liberties, democracy, and identity in these important Southeast Asian states?

Meredith Weiss is Professor and Chair of Political Science at the University at Albany, SUNY’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. Her books include Student Activism in Malaysia: Crucible, Mirror, Sideshow (Cornell University Press, 2011) and Protest and Possibilities: Civil Society and Coalitions for Political Change in Malaysia (Stanford University Press, 2006), as well as a number of edited volumes, most recently, Political Participation in Asia: Defining and Deploying Political Space (with Eva Hansson, Routledge, 2018).

Jeremy Menchik is Assistant Professor in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and faculty affiliate in Political Science and Religious Studies. His book, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism (Cambridge University Press, 2016) explains the meaning of tolerance to the world’s largest Islamic organizations and was the winner of the 2017 International Studies Association award for the best book on religion and international relations.