Former Malaysian PM in fighting mood over party’s future

MALAYSIA: Despite the odds stacked against him—including the return of his former ally turned chief rival to his party—former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin made a defiant show of force at Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) special meeting.

He walked in with a brave face, ready to fight back against any attempts to throw his party out of the PN alliance.

Last week, his party decided to make a bold move, announcing it would use the PN colours and symbols in the upcoming Johor state polls.

The move sent the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) into a frenzy with its supporters and social media commentators attacking both Muhyiddin and his party Bersatu for jumping the gun and for attempting to take ownership of the PN branding.

While the meeting dealt a blow to Muhyiddin Yassin’s ego—after PAS and other component parties voted to admit the new party of his former ally turned rival, Hamzah Zainudin—he did manage to prevent a total eviction and keep Bersatu within the Perikatan Nasional coalition, but for how long?

In defiant mode while the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition is on the brink of doing without his party, Muhyiddin insisted that Bersatu will remain a component party of the opposition PN.

He said this will be the case despite recent tensions with PAS.

He said Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu) had no intention of leaving the coalition and would continue to play its role within PN, even amid speculation over the future of its relationship with PAS following reports that the Islamist party had severed ties with Bersatu.

“We will remain in Perikatan. We helped build this coalition and have been part of its growth from the beginning,” he told party members at the launch of Bersatu’s election machinery for the Johor state election on the night of June 21.

However, PAS seems hell-bent on getting rid of Bersatu. It admitted the Wawasan party, a party now headed by former Bersatu number 2, Hamzah.

Hamzah and Muhyiddin had a fallout this year, leading to Muhyiddin kicking Hamzah out of Bersatu. But Hamzah claimed that 19 Bersatu MPs backed him, and they are now all anointed as members of the Wawasan party.

With Wawasan and Bersatu now sitting at the same PN table, tensions will surely flare since Hamzah has declared that from now on, Muhyiddin will be his political enemy number one!