ReflectionsMalaysia’s Anwar-Mahathir alliance is unlikely, but no more so than some from China’s past
Chinese history is rife with former adversaries uniting against a common enemy, but these collaborations don’t always end well
My Malaysian friends were euphoric following the ousting of the Barisan Nasional (National Front) government in the country’s 14th general election on May 9. The party and its predecessor, the Parti Perikatan (Alliance Party), had been the dominant ruling coalition in Malaya, and later Malaysia, since the country’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1957.
A historical example of a similar unlikely alliance united against a common enemy can be found in the Donglin partisan conflict during the final decades of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The Donglin partisans, named after the Donglin Academy from which many of its members hailed, were a group of intellectuals who sought to rectify the corrupt government of the day by reviving Confucian mores among the governing elite.
As they grew in number and influence, the group became increasingly self-righteous and exclusionary, especially after several attained high office. Their arrogance, as well as political ruthlessness, eventually drove non-Donglin-partisans to throw their lot in with the eunuchs, banding together two groups who had been adversaries since the Han period (206BC – AD220).