ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the changes and continuities in provincial politics through an account of the consecutive election held in 1995. As critical, however, is the fact that the executive arm of the Provincial Administrative Organization, the provincial council, provides members with privileged access to development budgets. Political scientists searching for signs of democratization in the conduct of the 1990 and 1995 provincial council elections would find little to lead them to a positive conclusion. The Democrat Party did not buy votes in the province except in certain localized pockets. It would have been possible for the Social Action Party (SAP) to follow suit and to contest the election on the basis of Montri Pongpanich's uneven though significant record of political patronage. The case study also provides us with the unique opportunity to trace the political careers of the political and economic elite in a single district: the same key protagonists were candidates in both elections in Klang.
