UMNO president moots ‘grand collaboration’ of Malay, Islamic political parties in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) has proposed a “grand collaboration” involving all Malay-Islamic political parties in the country, with its president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi saying that it is meant to unite their shared struggles.   

But Zahid - who is also Malaysia’s deputy prime minister - said the move is not intended to facilitate any “backdoor” manoeuvres that could destabilise the current unity government.

“We want this grand collaboration to unite the struggles of all Malay-Islamic parties in a big framework. We don’t (need) any parties that will be part of it to dissolve but to collaborate together informally as an early step,” he said during his closing speech at UMNO’s annual general assembly on Saturday (Jan 17).

The proposal - which came at the end of the party’s four-day assembly at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur - was then overwhelmingly accepted by UMNO delegates who stood up in support of it. 

“With this grand collaboration, we will set aside our differing (political) stripes for the sake of the Malays and Islam under one roof together,” Zahid said.

“Prime Minister (Anwar Ibrahim) please don’t be worried. I don’t have any agenda to threaten the unity government, but this is just to translate UMNO’s sincerity to include all Malay and Islamic parties (together) and put them under one roof for the sake of the Malay agenda.”

The latest proposal comes after Zahid said on Friday that UMNO would form a “unity committee” to facilitate the return of former members and political rivals back to the party as the “grand home for the Malays”.

Drawing over 6,000 delegates from around the country, UMNO’s general assembly came at a critical juncture for the party, which turns 80 this year. 

The annual gathering, originally scheduled for August last year, was initially moved to November before being postponed a second time as the party focused on the Nov 29 Sabah state election.

The general assembly began on Wednesday with debates centering on the Malay nationalist party’s continued presence within the unity government led by Anwar as well as the fate of its immediate past president Najib Razak. 

This comes amid two unfavourable court rulings for Najib - who is also a former premier - last December. 

A “LOOSE COLLABORATION”, SAYS ZAHID 

During a press conference after his closing speech on Saturday, Zahid said there was no committee yet regarding the proposed collaboration but added that the party would work on getting meetings with the top leaders of the other Malay and Islamic political parties in Malaysia. 

“UMNO - as the biggest Malay party - we are taking the first step to invite them to come together to take proactive and strategic steps to pool all our collective energy and ideas to have discussion. Although this is a loose collaboration, this is an early step,” he said. 

Zahid’s proposal comes as there have been calls to revive the Muafakat Nasional (MN) collaboration - an electoral pact between UMNO and Parti Se-Islam Malaysia (PAS) in 2019 that was once thought dead.

MN fell apart when PAS and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) - a splinter party of UMNO - formed Perikatan Nasional (PN), which is now the federal opposition bloc. 

Zahid, however, said that UMNO rejected this call as MN has been registered as a non-governmental organisation.   

When asked if his latest idea for the “grand collaboration” was similar to MN, Zahid said that it went “beyond it”. 

"This is not about being racial or marginalising other communities," he claimed, adding that there had been “informal discussions” with various other parties prior to the Saturday announcement. 

When asked if these parties included Bersatu and PAS - which currently are part of the PN opposition coalition - Zahid said that it also involved other parties too. 

“The discussions have been had,” he said, without giving further details. 

And when asked if the collaboration would see the potential parties working together at the various state polls expected to be held in Melaka and Johor this year, Zahid was coy of the prospects.

“We will see. I think we will decide when we cross the bridge,” he said, adding that there was no definitive timeline for the plan to come to fruition though he would “like to do it as soon as possible”.

He also stressed that Anwar was already informed of the idea.

UNITY COMMITTEE

The latest move appears to be a cranking up of the notch by Zahid after he unveiled the proposed “unity committee” in a bid to reunite the country’s Malays politically, signalling its efforts to heal internal party fractures by welcoming back former members and political rivals - whether individually or en bloc.

“UMNO’s responsibility today is far greater because UMNO is the home of the race - a place to reunite the Malays. This shall be achieved not through the rhetoric of anger, nor through historical grudges, but with a clear direction and a greatness of spirit,” Zahid said then.

Zahid’s announcement on Friday of the committee to facilitate the return of former members comes on the heels of former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s appearance at the UMNO Youth general assembly on Thursday three years after he was sacked from the party. 

On Saturday, Zahid appeared to give more details on this “unity committee”, saying that the re-acceptance of former party members back to UMNO - as well as the admittance of new ones - will be carried out in accordance with the processes and provisions of the party constitution.

Earlier during the day, UMNO secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said that the party has yet to receive any application from its former youth chief Khairy to rejoin the party.

But he stressed that UMNO had received “multiple” applications from former members seeking to rejoin the party.

“As secretary-general, I can say that we have indeed received many applications, and we welcome all of them.

“If we understand from the president’s policy speech, this house is open to everyone - all of them - because all of them originally came from the womb of UMNO,” he said.

During his speech on Friday, Zahid had also issued a plea to Malaysia’s king Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar to pardon Najib, who has been jailed at the Kajang prison in Selangor since August 2022.

UMNO, which is the oldest political party in Malaysia, lost its 61-year hold on government when it was voted out of power in favour of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition - then led by Mahathir - during the 14th General Election in 2018.

The party, which ruled Malaysia as the anchor party of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition since the country’s independence, lost power on the back of widespread public anger over the scandal at state-owned investment vehicle 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

The 1MDB scandal subsequently led to the conviction and jailing of Najib for corruption. 

UMNO only won 26 seats in the last general election in November 2022, its worst-ever performance at a general election. It won 54 seats in the 2018 elections and 89 in the 2013 elections.

BN is currently in Anwar’s unity government with the PH coalition alongside Gabungan Parti Sarawak, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah and Warisan after the 15th general elections in November 2022 resulted in a hung parliament.

The next general elections - GE16 - must be held by early 2028.