Kuala Lampur, Aug. 27 -- Malaysia's 16th General Election should not be understood merely as another contest to determine who occupies Putrajaya.

GE16 could be the election that shapes GE17, GE18 and even GE19.

This is because elections do more than produce governments. They establish political habits, coalition structures, leadership hierarchies and expectations among voters.

Once these patterns become entrenched, reversing them can take several electoral cycles.

GE16 therefore has the potential to become a path-dependence election: decisions taken before and immediately after it could lock Malaysian politics onto a particular trajectory for perhaps the next 15 years.

The first issue concerns the structure of Malay politics.

For de...