KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysians woke up Thursday to an unexpected new world of possibilities. His supporters hope Mahathir's government will be less autocratic than Najib's and less reliant on sectarian appeals to Malay Muslim identity. But even if it doesn't turn out that way, most analysts and citizens agree that something important happened Wednesday. On top of all that, Najib, who briefly supported a criminal code based on Islamic sharia law, also played the race card. In Southeast Asia, ethnic Chinese minorities have been subjected to official political exclusion or even racial violence when leaders accuse them of being rich outsiders with undue influence.

Source: Washington Post May 10, 2018 16:42 UTC