Malay Unity My Foot – PAS Dumps Bersatu In Preparation For UMNO
June 12th, 2026 by financetwitter
Before the November 2022 General Election, Bersatu (PPBM or Malaysian United Indigenous Party) and PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia or Malaysian Islamic Party) were great buddies. The relationship between Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang was so close and intimate that it annoyed UMNO terribly.
But on Monday night (June 8), the political marriage was over when PAS supremo Hadi Awang formally announced the party’s split from Bersatu, bringing to an end a six-year partnership. Effectively, the break-up also ends their six-year alliance within the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, where both Bersatu and PAS were the two biggest Malay-centric parties.
While Muhyiddin expressed regret over the “divorce”, Hadi has badmouthed Bersatu – accusing the party of opportunism, internal rot, betrayal such as the ousting of the PAS Menteri Besar in Perlis, and Bersatu’s resistance to admitting new Malay-Muslim parties (such as Berjasa, Pejuang, Iman, Petra and MIC) into PN. But that was just the appetizer.
Hadi also complained about internal power struggle within Bersatu, leading to dismissals, suspensions and defections. Worse, he accused Bersatu of being greedy for seat allocations for the polls by providing false information about its membership size and organisational machinery. As a result, PAS roots and machinery have to do all the dirty work like slaves for Bersatu.
Not only Bersatu had been using PAS resources like a parasite, but it also lied, betrayed, backstabbed, and even resisted plans to admit new Malay-Muslim parties into PN because Muhyiddin was afraid his position as de facto PN leader could be diluted or challenged. In short, Bersatu is weak and small, but acted like the Big Boss giving orders to PAS on what to do and what not to do..
Worse, Hadi was upset that most of the Bersatu MPs who were PAS-friendly were either removed, suspended, or fired – obviously referring to a breakaway Bersatu faction led by former opposition leader Hamzah Zainuddin, who happens to be the former Bersatu deputy president whose plan to topple party president Muhyiddin failed and was subsequently sacked.
Ironically, Muhyiddin and Hamzah too were great friends after they formed a backdoor government. Their despicable “Sheraton Move” saw the collapse of the legitimate and democratically voted Pakatan Harapan government in February 2020 when Muhyiddin’s faction in Bersatu left the government. Hamzah himself quit UMNO to join Bersatu in December 2018 after the ruling government Barisan Nasional lost power for the first time.
All hell broke loose after Perikatan Nasional failed to form a government after the November 2022 national polls. It was only after they lost power that Hamzah started a secret coup to overthrow Muhyiddin and criticized his leadership style, which led to Muhyiddin decisively and promptly fired Hamzah, who in turn declared his former boss as his “number one enemy”.
And it was only after former Prime Minister Muhyiddin miscalculated his political move by arrogantly rejecting former King Sultan Abdullah’s royal proposition of a unity government that Hadi started distancing and despising Muhyiddin for driving Perikatan Nasional into the opposition camp. So, the bad blood actually started upon failure to grab power in the 15th General Election in Nov 2022.
While Muhyiddin is indeed a well-known traitor, Hadi is the last person on the planet qualified to condemn him. PAS under Hadi’s leadership has not only become more radical and racist, but also is an “opportunist”party due to its history of shifting alliances and prioritizing power grabs over consistent ideology. There’s a reason why veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah branded PAS a “political prostitute“.
Once an ally of now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat (2008-2015), PAS under the corrupt Mr Hadi took RM90 million bribes from then-PM Najib Razak to break up the “rising star” Pakatan Rakyat coalition. The sensitive issue of hudud was deliberately manipulated by Hadi to provoke DAP, with DAP telling PAS to leave the coalition while at the same time PAS told DAP to quit instead.
After betraying and leaving Pakatan Rakyat, the fake holy man formed a new alliance with long-time rival UMNO to challenge the Pakatan Harapan government in 2019. The national cooperation between UMNO and PAS, glorified as “Muafakat Nasional” under the pretext of Malay-unity, died a natural death when it took merely 1 year for Hadi to betray UMNO in favour of Bersatu in 2020.
After Muhyiddin became the country’s first backdoor Prime Minister in March 2020, PAS immediately backstabbed and betrayed UMNO – secretly working with Bersatu to push for Perikatan Nasional (PN) to be registered as a coalition “months after” the Islamic party signed a political pact with UMNO (UMNO and PAS formed the Muafakat Nasional alliance in September 2019, while PN was officially registered as a coalition in August 2020).
Yes, PAS is the undisputed champion when it comes to a party that is highly irresponsible, unprincipled, hypocritical and opportunistic. It had betrayed almost every political party and alliance. For RM90 million, Hadi betrayed Pakatan Rakyat but blamed DAP for hudud. For power, Hadi then betrayed Barisan Nasional but blamed UMNO for refusing to accept Bersatu into Muafakat Nasional.
Now, Hadi is betraying Bersatu but blames Muhyiddin for internal crisis, betrayal, greed, lies, and whatnot. Every betrayal and treachery committed by the PAS president was justified by pointing fingers at others except himself. He had befriended Lim Kit Siang, Anwar Ibrahim, Zahid Hamidi, and Muhyiddin Yassin before backstabbing each and every one of them.
In truth, with the exception of former PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz, all the so-called Malay leaders with a drop of UMNO DNA are untrustworthy and traitors, including Mahathir, Muhyiddin, Hadi, Najib, and even Anwar. Yes, politically and historically, PAS is an offshoot or splinter of UMNO – founded in 1951 by a group of conservative Muslim clerics (ulama) who were members of UMNO.
Naturally, they would betray each other over time. And it’s a matter of time before they would shamelessly rub shoulders and become friends or allies again. Malay unity my foot – there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests. The unilateral decision by Hadi to sever ties with its coalition partner Bersatu is because both Muhyiddin and Bersatu have no more use for PAS.
Without power, ex-PM Muhyiddin can no longer plunder national coffers to fund PAS’s political agendas. Likewise, Muhyiddin can no longer reward Hamzah and his boys with position, power, and perks. The PAS-Bersatu split does not mean the end of one partnership, but is actually the beginning of a broader realignment in preparation for the next 16th General Election.
Plagued with corruption charges, not only Muhyiddin is toxic, but Bersatu is a damaged product that is dragging PAS from moving forward. PAS currently holds 43 seats in Malaysia’s lower house of parliament – the single biggest party. With “poster boy” Dr. Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, PAS is seeking greater strategic autonomy and wants to reposition itself as the main player ahead of upcoming state elections and the next general election.
It’s public knowledge that PAS’s short-term priority is to form a pact with a breakaway Bersatu faction led by former opposition leader Hamzah Zainuddin, who is believed to command “two-thirds” loyalty of Bersatu party members. Crucially, unlike Muhyiddin, Hamzah is PAS-friendly, obedient, subservient and ready to ask how high when Hadi asks him to jump.
On Saturday, all eyes will be on the “Reset” convention in Tanah Merah, Kelantan – an event widely seen as the launching pad for a new political party led by Hamzah. It’s not a coincidence that Hadi personally kicked Bersatu out before the convention. And it’s not a coincidence that the convention is being held in Kelantan, a true-blue PAS state. It was to clear the path for a new partnership with Hamzah’s movement.
Even though the Islamist party is the biggest party, there is still one huge problem. While popular in the Malay heartlands, PAS has failed to appeal to non-Malay community or address non-Muslim fears of an Islamic theocracy, in part due to its leaders’ radical comments on race and religion. Therefore, on its own, PAS cannot capture the federal government.
PAS desperately requires a bridge to make it more acceptable to the electorate, especially the political powerhouses in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak. Thus, a pro-PAS puppet Hamzah could be Muhyiddin’s replacement to help project a more moderate and inclusive image, making the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition more palatable to non-Muslim and non-Malay voters.
In the November 2022 national polls, PN won 74 seats (PAS secured 43 seats, whilst Bersatu captured 31 seats) in the 222-seat parliament, establishing itself as the second-largest bloc behind Pakatan Harapan (PH), which won 82 seats. Yet, despite securing majority of the Malay-Muslim votes, PN was still very far away from forming a simple-majority government on its own.
There’s another very important reason why Hadi told Muhyiddin to fly a kite. Kicking Bersatu out of the equation and replace the vacuum with Hamzah’s new party is just the beginning. The game plan – or rather the long shot – is to prepare the Islamist party for an alliance with the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) – either under Muafakat Nasional 2.0 or other platforms.
UMNO has repetitively said Bersatu must be kicked out before any talks of cooperation between PAS and UMNO could even begin – “you are either with us, or against us”. PAS has to choose either Bersatu or UMNO, not both. And Hadi had chosen UMNO for obvious reasons. To hell with Malay-Muslim unity. Power and money are more important.
Despite UMNO president Zahid Hamidi’s denial that recent meetings between UMNO and PAS were meant to revive the former Muafakat Nasional political alliance, there’s no guarantee that both parties would not form the next government together after the 16th General Election. After all, Zahid had screamed “No Anwar, No DAP” before the 15th General Election.
With Hadi readies to surrender the Prime Minister post to UMNO, a carrot that would attract Sabah and Sarawak into the bandwagon, it would be foolish for Zahid to reject such an offer. Make no mistake – UMNO leaders are trained to say one thing and do another behind closed doors. Malaysian forked-tongue politicians have demonstrated a high degree of hypocrisy and untrustworthy, mind you.
The burning question now is who will own the Perikatan Nasional banner. Both PAS and Bersatu have refused to quit the alliance and have claimed ownership to use the brand for the upcoming state elections in Johor and Negeri Sembilan, as well as next national elections. Bersatu could return to Pakatan Harapan despite Muhyiddin’s betrayal. Politics – especially Malay politics – is the art of the impossible.
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