[20200609]IF10316_马来西亚.pdf

https:/crsreports.congress.gov Updated June 9, 2020MalaysiaOverview The Federation of Malaysia is a majority Muslim parliamentary democracy in Southeast Asia. It has an ethnically and religiously diverse population of 32.6 million, with a Malay majority and large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities. Malaysia is considered a middle-income country, relatively prosperous among Southeast Asian nations. Malaysia has undergone significant political upheaval in 2020, as shifts in its ruling coalition deposed Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and brought his former party-mate Muhyiddin Yassin into power on March 1, just as the countrys Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak was expanding. Mahathirs ouster through non-electoral processes raised questions about Malaysias democratic system, as the country had undergone its first democratic change of government less than two years earlier. The ruling coalition now includes two parties that had been defeated in those historic 2018 elections. The new governments initial response to the spread of COVID-19 garnered criticism, as Malaysia saw a rapid rise of COVID-19 cases before closing its borders on March 18, 2020. The spread has since sta