Perikatan Nasional: ’Tis the time to be unjolly
Thursday, 01 Jan 2026 9:03 AM MYT
By Praba Ganesan
JANUARY 1 — Happy New Year!
I initially wanted to spread the feelgood holiday cheer to everyone, as people laze over a long weekend to get ready for a great productive year ahead.
Maybe urge patriotic resolutions or direct people to a nearby animal shelter to hug a domesticated pet feeling unloved.
Buy hungover revellers coffee and impart common sense like, “Do not leave your date at the countdown party.”
That was until Malaysians were informed they would wake up in 2026 with the country’s main Opposition bloc leaderless.
All the fuss kicked off a week earlier: as a Christmas present, PAS sacks three Perlis assemblymen. Fair enough, since they backed Bersatu reps’ effort to dislodge Perlis MB Shukri Ramli.
To match the drama, Muhyiddin Yassin resigned as Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman while holidaying in Madrid, effective today.
Who said the conservative “values first and last” PN did not know how to stir up some festive year-end excitement? Someone must have said PAS and Bersatu are boorish and boring towards the year end as the rest of us amble into a place of fun or two.
Perlis is the time, is the place, is the motion
Three PAS state assemblymen in Perlis whose positions were automatically vacated following the immediate termination of their party membership. — Bernama pic
It’s incredulous that this much trouble kicks off in an area filled with less than two-thirds the voters in Bangi.
Perlis, three parliamentary seats totalling less than 200,000 voters is what preoccupies a nation currently. Though it is the 15 assembly seats inside them which bring us to this FUBAR.
Big trouble in little Perlis.
Instead, it should be the picture of stability because 14 seats, or 93 per cent belong to the dark blue of PN. PKR’s Gan Ay Ling is Indera Kayangan’s rep, she is also the the only elected rep in Perlis not from PN.
She is incidentally the leader of the Perlis Opposition. She chats with herself in the house when she is unsure. It can get lonely.
Whatever they smoke in Kangar, it inspired the five Bersatu reps to talk three PAS reps to sign statutory declarations requesting a new menteri besar.
Like requisitioning new stationery, these SDs. They object to their own party’s anointed MB. PAS HQ was not impressed. Not impressed at all.
PAS President Hadi Awang summarily sacks Saad Seman (Chuping), Fakhrul Anwar Ismail (Bintong), and Ridzuan Hashim (Guar Sanji). Which also means the trio lose their assembly seats.
PAS doubles down. At first, Speaker Rus’sele Eizan announces the seats vacant and asked the Election Commission to hold elections.
But yesterday he said the three seats would remain vacant and there would be no by-elections as the state assembly is set to automatically dissolve in two years.
Rus’sele said the decision was made under Clause (5) of Article 55 of the Perlis State Consitution and communicated to the state Election Commission (EC) the day before, The Star reported.
That’s a lot to process for a nation on holiday evading mistletoes and eggnog to skip sin.
Yet, it is hit by “I Quit Day”.
If you leave me now, you take away I don’t know what
Bersatu President Muhyiddin picked up his passport from the courts on December 15, to head out to London, Madrid and Dubai.
A sojourn to get medical assistance and connect with family. Makes me less convinced he had anything to do with the Perlis shenanigans, and Larut is far closer to Kangar than Pagoh.
His judge expects Muhyiddin’s passport back to custodial care by January 5, 2026.
A tedious and frankly unwelcomed criminal corruption case denies him travel on other days of the year.
His travel schedule reads Madrid after Christmas, I’m guessing that’s where he was when Bersatu’s Abu Bakar Hamzah was sworn in as the new Perlis MB.
On a balcony overlooking the resplendent Spanish capital, a family member with the temerity to interject may have reminded him that in a year where nothing went right for Bersatu, the party got some power while he was out of the country.
Whether he got an internal jolt or was unamused by PAS leaders’ taunts that PN was better under them or just fed up, most observers are unable to decipher his December 30 quit decision, to vacate the PN chairmanship when 2026 begins.
But he’s not the last to quit.
In what appears a co-ordinated stratagem, one by one PN state chairs leave. Azmin Ali quits in Selangor, Faizal Azumu follows in Perak, as do Johor’s Sahruddin Jamal for Johor, Negeri Sembilan’s Mohamad Hanifah Abu Baker and Sarawak’s Jaziri Alkaf Abdillah Suffian.
The PN state chairs not to quit are from PAS or Melaka’s Mas Ermieyati Samsudin who is from Bersatu.
It leaves a lot to reconcile or enough reasons for PN to self-destruct in 2026.
What was a year to close ranks and prepare for a general election turns instead into an existentialist crisis.
Akmal wants to have a word
The Unity government of Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional prefer to be interested observers to PN’s implosion but they have a hothead inhouse in the form of Akmal Saleh.
The Umno Youth Chief talks up Muafakat Nasional, the stillborn cooperation between PAS and Umno after GE14 2018-2022, a few days before a youth congress to discuss what Malay supremacy should look like.
Whether he gets Umno stuck into this muck is what party president Zahid Hamidi will watch for without time for irony.
As it stands, it’s a thousand questions raised with answers as distant as economic growth in Perlis.
I’d venture to say, those in Perlis looking for inspiration may be better served by waking up today on the Thai side of Padang Besar.
More foot massages than foot in mouth syndrome dominating the scene.
It appears the Perikatan Nasional folks have started their countdown to New Year much earlier than the rest of the world, or even Kiribati. Look that one up, one place with less people than Perlis.
JANUARY 1 — Happy New Year!
I initially wanted to spread the feelgood holiday cheer to everyone, as people laze over a long weekend to get ready for a great productive year ahead.
Maybe urge patriotic resolutions or direct people to a nearby animal shelter to hug a domesticated pet feeling unloved.
Buy hungover revellers coffee and impart common sense like, “Do not leave your date at the countdown party.”
That was until Malaysians were informed they would wake up in 2026 with the country’s main Opposition bloc leaderless.
All the fuss kicked off a week earlier: as a Christmas present, PAS sacks three Perlis assemblymen. Fair enough, since they backed Bersatu reps’ effort to dislodge Perlis MB Shukri Ramli.
To match the drama, Muhyiddin Yassin resigned as Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman while holidaying in Madrid, effective today.
Who said the conservative “values first and last” PN did not know how to stir up some festive year-end excitement? Someone must have said PAS and Bersatu are boorish and boring towards the year end as the rest of us amble into a place of fun or two.
Perlis is the time, is the place, is the motion
Three PAS state assemblymen in Perlis whose positions were automatically vacated following the immediate termination of their party membership. — Bernama pic
It’s incredulous that this much trouble kicks off in an area filled with less than two-thirds the voters in Bangi.
Perlis, three parliamentary seats totalling less than 200,000 voters is what preoccupies a nation currently. Though it is the 15 assembly seats inside them which bring us to this FUBAR.
Big trouble in little Perlis.
Instead, it should be the picture of stability because 14 seats, or 93 per cent belong to the dark blue of PN. PKR’s Gan Ay Ling is Indera Kayangan’s rep, she is also the the only elected rep in Perlis not from PN.
She is incidentally the leader of the Perlis Opposition. She chats with herself in the house when she is unsure. It can get lonely.
Whatever they smoke in Kangar, it inspired the five Bersatu reps to talk three PAS reps to sign statutory declarations requesting a new menteri besar.
Like requisitioning new stationery, these SDs. They object to their own party’s anointed MB. PAS HQ was not impressed. Not impressed at all.
PAS President Hadi Awang summarily sacks Saad Seman (Chuping), Fakhrul Anwar Ismail (Bintong), and Ridzuan Hashim (Guar Sanji). Which also means the trio lose their assembly seats.
PAS doubles down. At first, Speaker Rus’sele Eizan announces the seats vacant and asked the Election Commission to hold elections.
But yesterday he said the three seats would remain vacant and there would be no by-elections as the state assembly is set to automatically dissolve in two years.
Rus’sele said the decision was made under Clause (5) of Article 55 of the Perlis State Consitution and communicated to the state Election Commission (EC) the day before, The Star reported.
That’s a lot to process for a nation on holiday evading mistletoes and eggnog to skip sin.
Yet, it is hit by “I Quit Day”.
If you leave me now, you take away I don’t know what
Bersatu President Muhyiddin picked up his passport from the courts on December 15, to head out to London, Madrid and Dubai.
A sojourn to get medical assistance and connect with family. Makes me less convinced he had anything to do with the Perlis shenanigans, and Larut is far closer to Kangar than Pagoh.
His judge expects Muhyiddin’s passport back to custodial care by January 5, 2026.
A tedious and frankly unwelcomed criminal corruption case denies him travel on other days of the year.
His travel schedule reads Madrid after Christmas, I’m guessing that’s where he was when Bersatu’s Abu Bakar Hamzah was sworn in as the new Perlis MB.
On a balcony overlooking the resplendent Spanish capital, a family member with the temerity to interject may have reminded him that in a year where nothing went right for Bersatu, the party got some power while he was out of the country.
Whether he got an internal jolt or was unamused by PAS leaders’ taunts that PN was better under them or just fed up, most observers are unable to decipher his December 30 quit decision, to vacate the PN chairmanship when 2026 begins.
But he’s not the last to quit.
In what appears a co-ordinated stratagem, one by one PN state chairs leave. Azmin Ali quits in Selangor, Faizal Azumu follows in Perak, as do Johor’s Sahruddin Jamal for Johor, Negeri Sembilan’s Mohamad Hanifah Abu Baker and Sarawak’s Jaziri Alkaf Abdillah Suffian.
The PN state chairs not to quit are from PAS or Melaka’s Mas Ermieyati Samsudin who is from Bersatu.
It leaves a lot to reconcile or enough reasons for PN to self-destruct in 2026.
What was a year to close ranks and prepare for a general election turns instead into an existentialist crisis.
Akmal wants to have a word
The Unity government of Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional prefer to be interested observers to PN’s implosion but they have a hothead inhouse in the form of Akmal Saleh.
The Umno Youth Chief talks up Muafakat Nasional, the stillborn cooperation between PAS and Umno after GE14 2018-2022, a few days before a youth congress to discuss what Malay supremacy should look like.
Whether he gets Umno stuck into this muck is what party president Zahid Hamidi will watch for without time for irony.
As it stands, it’s a thousand questions raised with answers as distant as economic growth in Perlis.
I’d venture to say, those in Perlis looking for inspiration may be better served by waking up today on the Thai side of Padang Besar.
More foot massages than foot in mouth syndrome dominating the scene.
It appears the Perikatan Nasional folks have started their countdown to New Year much earlier than the rest of the world, or even Kiribati. Look that one up, one place with less people than Perlis.
