Bersatu’s Destruction – Karma Continues Haunting Muhyiddin & Azmin
June 20th, 2026 by financetwitter
What goes around comes around – meaning your actions, whether good or bad, will eventually have consequences that return to you. When politicians from Bersatu, Barisan Nasional, PAS, and a splinter faction of PKR met at the Sheraton Hotel on February 23, 2020, all eyes were on Muhyiddin Yassin and Azmin Ali. Both were walking proudly and arrogantly to the Grand Ballroom.
When both traitors walked into the gathering, they were greeted with cheers and applause from supporters and allied politicians like heroes. Grinning from ear to ear, Muhyiddin had defected from then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), while Azmin had defected from PM-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
Muhyiddin’s sudden withdrawal of support, along with Azmin’s faction of 10 PKR lawmakers (known as the G10) betrayal, effectively ended the Mahathir-led Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition’s government in just 22 months. The coup – known as the “Sheraton Move” – marked the first time in Malaysia a democratically elected government was toppled and replaced with a backdoor regime.
But when Muhyiddin and Azmin converged at the hotel for a celebratory dinner with the United Malays Nasional Organization (UMNO) – the former long-ruling party which had been defeated 22 months earlier in the May 2018 General Election – and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), they had never imagined for once about karma. Both werejust thinking about how clever they were in the power grab plot.
When Muhyiddin and Azmin shook hands six years ago, they smiled and felt invincible. Muhyiddin would become the 8th Prime Minister, whilst Azmin thought he would be PM-in-waiting. Today, however, not only Muhyiddin and Azmin are like street beggars without power, but their mothership – Bersatu – has exploded beyond repair and could perish before the next Christmas.
Yes, karma is a bitch. For betraying his own Pakatan Harapan government, Muhyiddin has been betrayed at least “four times”, and counting. UMNO, his former party-turned-ally in a hastily cobbled-together Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, took a page from his playbook and withdrew support in July 2021. Betrayed, Muhyiddin was forced to resign as Prime Minister on August 16, 2021, after just 17 months in office.
But the backdoor government remained in power because none of the three power-hungry Malay-centric parties – UMNO, Bersatu and PAS – dared to rock the boat that gave them power, projects, positions and perks. They agreed that the clueless and incompetent “turtle egg” Ismail Sabri Yaakob would replace Muhyiddin as the next Prime Minister.
Problems started when Muhyiddin-led Perikatan Nasional failed to form a government after the 15th General Election produced a hung parliament. With Bersatu accounts frozen and Muhyiddin charged with corruption, soon distrust, dissatisfaction and bad blood began to develop between Muhyiddin and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang. Without power and money, Muhyiddin was useless to Hadi.
The “Cold War” started in late 2023. Hadi Awang stopped attending Perikatan Nasional (PN) supreme council meetings, especially after Muhyiddin backpedalled in November 2023 over his retirement plans. Muhyiddin tasted his second betrayal when his trusted lieutenant – Hamzah Zainudin – plotted a covert political coup, which was secretly backed by Mr Hadi, to overthrow him.
Muhyiddin’s “U-turn” on defending his presidency at the Bersatu polls had torpedoed PAS’s plans to push its vice-president Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar as the opposition’s candidate for prime minister in the next general election. Apparently, Hadi was angry that power-hungry Muhyiddin continued to cling to the PN chairmanship with obvious intention to be appointed as the next prime minister.
The PN chairman post is extremely vital and strategic. The role is effectively seen as the coalition’s de facto prime ministerial candidate for Malaysia’s 16th General Election that has to be held by February 2028. PAS was the driving force behind PN’s success (winning a total of 74 seats) in the 2022 General Election, securing 43 parliamentary seats, a substantial gain of 25.
The ambitious PAS Islamist party had lost patience with its partner, seen as not only greedy for power, but also weak without strong grassroots and machinery. While Bersatu secured 31 seats in the 2022 general election, its share of seats has dropped to 25, after six MPs unhappy with Muhyiddin’s leadership switched sides to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government in 2023.
Although the Hamzah faction failed to pressure Muhyiddin to hand over power, the former PM could not stomach the humiliation during Bersatu’s annual general meeting in Sept 2023, where some delegates aligned with Hamzah heckled him to step down as president. At the meeting, Muhyiddin angrily criticised efforts to topple him via the collection of statutory declarations from party members.
Mr Muhyiddin survived the attempted coup, but not his party. About two-thirds of Bersatu MPs openly called for Muhyiddin to step down as president and give way to Hamzah. Under Azmin’s advisement, eventually Muhyiddin sacked Hamzah and his loyalists from Bersatu with immediate effect on February 13, 2026 for allegedly breaching the party’s constitution.
But even before Hamzah’s sacking, the relationship between Bersatu and PAS had deteriorated from bad to worse. Muhyiddin tried to flex his muscles with a coup in Perlis – seizing power from the PAS state government, leading to the resignation of Chief Minister Mohd Shukri Ramli, who is related to Hadi by family marriage. Shocked, mad and furious, PAS condemned Bersatu’s betrayal.
Muhyiddin made a desperate tactical move by resigning as the chairman of Perikatan Nasional (PN) on January 1, 2026. He wrongly bet that PAS would plunge into a crisis, unable to replace him as the moderate face in the coalition to scam voters. On February 22, Samsuri, who is PAS vice-president and Terengganu Menteri Besar (Chief Minister), was appointed PN chairman.
Not only Hamzah’s sacking has reduced Muhyiddin faction to just a handful MPs, but Muhyiddin had also lost the precious PN chairmanship to PAS. However, the Islamist party was just getting started with betrayal and backstabbing. On June 8, PAS president Hadi Awang announced the decision to terminate PAS’s political cooperation with Bersatu, much to UMNO’s delight.
It was a slap in the face of Muhyiddin as a day earlier (June 7), Bersatu reiterated its determination and commitment to maintain good relations with PAS in Perikatan Nasional. It was already bad when PAS kicked out Bersatu. It became worse when Hadi opened fire, accusing Bersatu of all kinds of nasty things – power crazy, parasite, traitor, weakling, untrustworthy, and whatnot.
There’s no honour among thieves. While Muhyiddin – betrayed for the third time – was still recovering from shock and disbelief, Hadi Awang gave him another rude kick where it hurt the most. The PAS president, who was Muhyiddin’s best friend in 2020, has not only launched Hamzah’s new party, but also proposed the party’s name – Parti Wawasan Negara – during the Reset convention on June 13.
Adding salt to the wound, at the same convention, Abdul Hadi Awang also announced that Hamzah would return as opposition leader, taking over from Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, who will remain as PN chairman. Meanwhile, Samsuri also announced that Parti Wawasan Negara will contest the upcoming Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections under the PN logo.
Power-hungry Muhyddin insisted on June 16 that Bersatu will remain as a component party in Perikatan Nasional. He also said Bersatu will use the PN logo in the Johor and Negeri Sembilan state polls slated for July 11 and Aug 1, respectively. Frustrated, he argued that the party cannot be removed from PN unilaterally or based on the decision of any single party.
Muhyiddin even warned that Bersatu is ready to face PAS in the state elections if efforts to restore relations between the two largest parties in PN fail. But only PN chairman, who in this case is Samsuri, can sign “watikah” or “letter of appointment” for candidates to contest in elections. Therefore, neither Bersatu nor PAS can use the same logo if the dispute continues, risking a court room battle.
In retaliation, PN chairman Samsuri decisively removed Radzi Md Jidin as the coalition’s election director and dismissed Azmin Ali as its deputy secretary general on June 18. Technically, Bersatu is still a legitimate member of the Perikatan Nasional coalition. But it has now become a pariah member as PAS has decided to strip it naked of all positions.
The best part is the other two components of the coalition – the Malaysian Indian People’s Party (MIPP) and Gerakan – are now working together with the Reset team. Gerakan president Dominic Lau used to be Muhyiddin’s loudest cheerleader and biggest apple polisher. It appears even Dominic has betrayed Muhyiddin, leaving the ex-PM isolated and dejected.
Unless Bersatu boldly quits Perikatan Nasional, which it co-founded and rejoin Pakatan Harapan which it betrayed back in 2020, the party could perish as it is currently facing an existential political crisis. Without PAS’s formidable election machinery, Bersatu is highly vulnerable and could lose all the seats – even deposits – in the upcoming state elections and 16th General Election.
Alternatively, Bersatu could dissolve and Muhyiddin and Azmin may return to UMNO and PKR respectively. While Muhyiddin could retire for good, the same cannot be said about Azmin, whose ambition to become the country’s youngest prime minister had led him to betray both PKR and Pakatan Harapan, only to enjoy power as a senior minister for less than 3 years under the backdoor PN regime.
Azmin is now like a “street rat”. Even if Muhyiddin passes the baton to him, Bersatu is broken and rotten. It would be a miracle if the Malaysian United Indigenous Party could keep its deposit in the next national polls, let alone form a government. Nobody wants to associate with a loser. With Hadi officially blessing Hamzah’s Wawasan, expect more Bersatu opportunists to switch sides.
There’s a reason why PAS chose Hamzah over Azmin. Mr Hadi could not afford to be mocked, laughed at and ridiculed over a leaked “gay sex” video clip, where Azmin Ali was caught with his pants down engaging “unnatural sex” at Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Sandakan, Sabah. The scandal was not rumour because Azmin’s gay partner, Muhammad Haziq Abdul, had admitted it.
In June 2019, just a day after the videos were exposed, Haziq confessed on Facebook that his sex partner – Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali – had tried to force him to lie about the affair which he said had actually begun three years earlier. Of course, not only Azmin was never investigated, let alone charged, Haziq too was never charged for defamation – suggesting that both were indeed gay lovers.
In fact, Azmin’s gay sex videos had been authenticated, but laughably the police (thanks to then-Home Minister Muhyiddin) insisted that the authorities were not able to “positively identify” the two men shown in the videos that were leaked online. It didn’t help when Mahathir quickly pronounced Azmin’s innocence and declared that the video clip was fake – even “before” the police could start the process of authenticating the video.
The burning question is whether PKR president and PM Anwar Ibrahim would welcome former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali back to the party. After all, both appear to share a common hobby. But even if PKR agrees with a loose cooperation with Azmin or Bersatu, would Democratic Action Party (DAP) pretend that the “Sheraton Move” didn’t happen and happily embrace gay Azmin and his treachery gang?
Had Azmin stayed loyal to PKR and Pakatan Harapan, he would be next in line to succeed Anwar now that his enemy – Rafizi Ramli – had left PKR to lead Parti Bersama Malaysia (Bersama). All his effort since 2020 in politicking, scheming, backstabbing, and treachery has come to naught. Worse, both Muhyiddin and Azmin have no idea how long the bad karma will continue to haunt them.
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Pas, Bersatu, UMNO - Just nests of incestuous vipers
