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CIRCLES OF POWER AND COUNTERBALANCES 5ConclusionIn the forest-rich state in Malaysia, business successlargely depends on political patronage under the strongrule of the Chief Minister. The major external andinternal factors of the present Chief Minister’s longtimecontrol over the state can be summarized as follows: Asexternal factors, the national BN parties (i.e., UMNO,the Chinese-based party MCA, the Indian-based partyMIC) have not come into this state so they have to relyon the state government parties for gaining BN-supportseats in Parliament. Hence, the federal governmentsupports and will not interfere with the Chief Ministeras long as the state coalition government delivers crucialvotes to maintain the national BN in power. Moreover,the Chief Minister is nominated from among theparty leaders of the state governing coalition, so thefederal government can easily intervene in the processof negotiation among the party leaders in order to putits favorite forward as Chief Minister. All these factorsindicate that the state’s politics are ultimately influencedby the federal government.As internal factors, the Chief Minister has succeededin striking a political ethnic balance in terms of theallocation of political interests by giving the offices ofstate ministers to leading politicians representing variousethnic groups while he holds the most important andprofitable positions in the Cabinet. Another significantissue regarding control in the state is winning generaland state elections. The government parties havesucceeded in maintaining a majority of seats in electionsthrough various methods such as vote-buying, theestablishment of new constituencies, commitments toinfrastructure building in rural areas, and so on. Underthese conditions, the Chief Minister concentratedpolitical power in his hands and established the politicobusinesspatronage systems through the reallocation oftimber interests so that powerful local business peopledepended on him for their business success.Are there any possible changes in political conditions inthis state? The Chief Minister is already over 70 yearsold and has a health problem that will force him toretire in the near future. Since political power is muchtoo concentrated on him and no other local politician isequal to his political skills at reading and manipulatingthe federal and state political situations, the futurecompetition for the office of Chief Minister may leadto severe and persistent disputes and reorganizationsof power among major party leaders. The federalgovernment will then play a crucial rule in the processof negotiation among local politicians. Hence, politicalinstability at the federal level will create even greaterconfusion in competition over political power in thisstate.NOTES1 I cannot mention the name of the state and the ChiefMinister for security reasons. For the same reasons, somereferences which I used are not on the reference list.2The reasons for the 1975 and 1985-86 decline in forestrevenues need to be examined carefully in furtherresearch.3Actually, the autonomy in the forestry sector, which thefederal government granted to the state government, isnot absolute since the federal government keeps manyways to control the state government. For example, federalagencies such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency,tax departments and even the environment departmentcould be used to put pressure on the state government.The state examined in this paper has been able to keepthe forestry land autonomy because the Chief Ministerhas been able to satisfy federal leaders in power by givingthem some shares of the forestry interests.4The Indonesian central government, however, abolished theright of local governments to issue logging concessions in2002 because of the over-issuance of concessions by localgovernment heads.5The Malay- (and Muslim-) based party of the nationalcoalition government, the United Malays NationalOrganization (UMNO), does not have a branch in thisstate.6The divisional administrative system was formed only inthis state in Malaysia.7Please see Brown (2001) for details about these five timbercompanies and their political networks.8Please see Forbes and .REFERENCESNewspapers and magazinesColchester, Marcus. “Malaysian Loggers Come Out of theWoodwork: Timber Boom drives Malaysian Companies ontothe Stock Exchange.” Forest Peoples Programme 26 September1994.Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows
6CIRCLES OF POWER AND COUNTERBALANCESAnon. “A Tale of Timber.” Malaysia Business. 1 July 1995.Anon. “How About Auditing Bigger Fish Instead?” AliranMonthly. 2004: 2.Internet sourcesForbes. Malaysia’s 40 Richest. 2006. Forbes. 9 July 2007..Books and papersBrown, David Walter. “Why Governments Fail to CaptureEconomic Rent: The Unofficial Appropriation of Rain ForestRent by Rulers in Insular Southeast Asia Between 1970 and1999.” Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Washington, 2001..Morishita, Akiko. “Soeharto Taisei Hokaigo no IndonesiaChiho Seiji: Nishi, Chubu, Higashi Kalimantan no rikenwo nigirunowa douitta hitotachi ka [Local Politics in Post-Soeharto Indonesia: Who Controls Local Resources in West,Central, and East Kalimantan?].” Ph.D. Dissertation. KyotoUniversity, 2006.Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows
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Page 3 and 4: iiiCONTENTSAbout the BookAcknowledg
Page 5 and 6: V. APPENDICESCultivation of Transfo
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Page 9 and 10: ixTHE CONTRIBUTORS(in alphabetical
Page 11 and 12: MYFEL JOSEPH PALUGA is a faculty me
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Page 19 and 20: xixOVERVIEWCzarina Saloma-Akpedonu,
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Page 23 and 24: xxiiiABOUT THE WORKSHOPThe 6 th API
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JOSIE M. FERNANDEZExecutive Council
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237MARY RACELISProfessorial Lecture
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239NAPAT TANGAPIWUTInstitute of Asi
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Persistent problems, promising solu
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