Advantages and Disadvantage of Political Party

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Introduction To start off, what is a political party? What are its roles and functions? Is it necessary for a country to have political parties? How do political parties benefit the country and its citizens? These are the general questions that are on most people’s minds especially those who have not kept abreast with the political situation in their own countries. To answer the questions raised previously, a political party basically consists of a group of people who are organized for the purpose of directing policies that will enable voters via an election to place candidates in office under their label. There are several functions of political parties in a country, such as bridging people and the government, political socialization, integrating the political system and mobilizing voters. Although often downplayed, political parties have similar duties in the field of politics like sects or denominations have in religion. Political parties in Malaysia are distinguished more by their differing racial composition rather than by contending political philosophies. Moving on, the government has been dominated since independence by Barisan Nasional (BN ). Barisan Nasional is an alliance comprising the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), Malaysian Indian Congress ( MIC ), Malaysian People’s Movement Party ( GERAKAN ), People’s Progressive Party ( PPP ) and plus a series of smaller parties mainly from the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) has been the dominant influential party in both Barisan Nasional and the country. The main opposition parties are the Democratic Action Party (DAP), Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), and People’s Justice Party (PKR). However, there are also other standalone and independent parties such as the Socialist Party of Malaysia
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