COMMENT | How do we take stock of democratisation six years after the fall of Umno? Allow me to offer a counter-intuitive one - the prospect of successful democratisation may largely depend on whether Umno can make a comeback.

Umno’s dominance since the 1970s grew on a 3-in-1 formula of Malay nationalism, authoritarianism, and patronage.

Many ethnic minority or liberal-leaning Malaysians saw themselves as the victims of Umno’s success. Malay nationalism devalues their citizenship, authoritarianism suppresses their rights, and patronage breeds corruption and damages the economy.

For them, a new Malaysia has to be the antithesis of Umno: no nationalism, no authoritarianism, and no patronage.

Hence, they were too happy to see Umno going down after 2018. They cheered for the exodus of Umno MPs and their Borneo allies. They defended the first Pakatan Harapan government’s discrimination against opposition MPs in constituency allocation.

However, as Umno gets weaker, the “New Malaysia” has also gotten weaker. Umno’s electoral share shifted to Bersatu and later to Perikatan Nasional, resulting in the two Green Waves.