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| "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong." [1] — Voltaire
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| "A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." [1] — George Bernard Shaw
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Barisan Nasional (Malay for National Front) is a major political coalition in Malaysia that was formed in 1973 as the successor to the Alliance Party. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, the nation's capital, it has been Malaysia's ruling political party since independence. However, in the 2008 general elections, the Barisan Nasional was delivered a severe political blow when it lost its traditional two thirds-majority in Parliament since independence, losing five out of 13 states and also the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur to Pakatan Rakyat, a loose alliance of opposition parties.
2. The Barisan Nasional defines itself as "a confederation of political parties". As of December 2008, there are 13 component parties within the Barisan Nasional, with the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) as its backbone. Each component party operates to all intents and purposes as a separate party, save that of elections. The vast majority of Barisan Nasional's seats during elections, however, are still allocated to the three original members of the Alliance Party, viz. UMNO, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), and the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC).
3. The Barisan Nasional was formed as a result of the relatively poor showing of the Alliance Party in the 1969 general election, Malaysia's third since independence. In the aftermath of the racial riots on May 13 that year, Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak overthrew the Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, and ruled by decree. In January 1973, he set up the enlarged Barisan Nasional, incorporating several opposition parties, to replace the Alliance in preparation for the general election of 1974. Based on newly declassified documents at the Public Records Office in London, the May 13 Incident had been intentionally started by the "ascendent state capitalist class" in UMNO as a coup d'etat to topple the Tunku from power.[1][1]
4. The Barisan Nasional is often seen as one of the main causes as to why Malaysia's multiracial society remain unintegrated. The racial-based party coalition is the core to the other racial-based organisations in the country and race-based societies are even encouraged at school levels. The ultimate barrier to national integration is the division of Malaysian society into what is termed Bumiputera ("sons of the soil", comprising mainly Malays) and non-Bumiputera (mainly Chinese and Indian). In 1971, the Barisan Nasional, under Tun Abdul Razak, promulgated the New Economic Policy (NEP) as an affirmative action to eliminate the identification of ethnicity with economic function. The initial target was to move the ratio of economic ownership in Malaysia from a 2.4:33:63 ratio of bumiputeras, other Malaysians, and foreigner ownership to a 30:40:30 ratio. Now that a University of Malaya report released in 2002 found that Bumiputera equity had hit the NEP target in 1992,[1] UMNO leaders are fighting to have the NEP extended indefinitely under the name of Ketuanan Melayu (Malay for "Malay supremacy" or Malay "dominance"). Greed knows no bounds, notwithstanding that Islam is the official religion of the country. more... at Wikipedia
