KUALA LUMPUR - For the first time in 25 years, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim attended the annual general assembly of Umno on Friday, taking a seat at the top table as the party’s president Zahid Hamidi again urged members to support Malaysia’s unity government.

“I felt comfortable and used to the atmosphere, including memorising the song,” said Datuk Seri Anwar, referring to the party’s anthem, which he gamely sang while waving the Umno flag.

He last attended the assembly in June 1998 as Umno’s deputy president, before being sacked three months later.

On Friday, Datuk Seri Zahid delivered an opening speech in which he doubled down on support for Mr Anwar despite his party leaders on Thursday expressing misgivings about cooperating with the Premier’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.

But, while he cajoled delegates to embrace Mr Anwar, PH leaders themselves would have bristled at the sudden pivot in the Umno chief’s speech calling for former Umno president Najib Razak’s release from jail.

Dr Zahid, who is also deputy premier, said backing Mr Anwar remains the right path for Malaysia’s once-dominant party even if it means joining hands with former bitter foes.

He spent a good portion of his 80-minute speech praising Mr Anwar and advocating a more progressive Umno in the unity government. He also insisted that the reformist Prime Minister had championed the interests of the Malay-Muslim majority, a role that Umno has traditionally played.

Addressing accusations from the opposition Perikatan Nasional that Islam was threatened under the Anwar administration, Dr Zahid pointed to the government’s firm stance that the word “Allah” cannot be used by other religions to refer to God, and the RM1.65 billion (S$480 million) allocated for developing Islam and Islamic education.

“If we want to see Islam and Malays excel, our involvement in government will strengthen a Malay-Muslim agenda that is moderate and progressive,” he said.

But after talking up cooperation between the parties for polls due in two months to elect six out of Malaysia’s 13 state governments, Dr Zahid remarked that “even our former leader who is now behind bars also hopes and prays that the unity government wins these six states”.

“Even though he is not with us physically, his spirit and soul are with us,” he said to a standing ovation, before Najib’s son Mohd Nizar Najib stood up in the audience to ask Mr Anwar to “please release my father”.

Dr Zahid added: “Umno’s stand will not change, that is to demand justice for Datuk Seri Najib.”

Umno is on a campaign to seek a royal pardon for the former premier, who is serving a 12-year jail sentence for graft related to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

Mr Anthony Loke, secretary-general of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which is part of PH, told The Straits Times: “That is Zahid’s view. It’s okay.

“He has to play to the gallery.”

The 1MDB scandal, in which billions of dollars went missing from the state fund, was a key plank of PH’s 2018 election campaign that saw Umno lose power for the first time in the six decades since Malaysia’s independence.

Under further attacks for corruption, not least from Mr Anwar’s PH, Umno suffered its worst electoral result at the general election in November 2022, winning just 26 of Parliament’s 222 seats.

With the 2022 election resulting in Malaysia’s first hung Parliament, Mr Anwar eventually took power when Dr Zahid overcame internal opposition within his party and teamed up with PH in a unity government that also includes several East Malaysian parties.

When leaving the assembly on Friday, Mr Anwar did not address the Najib issue, merely saying: “Personal experiences are important, but not more than the national and public interest.”

Mr Loke, who is Transport Minister, also brushed aside calls from Umno Youth on Thursday for DAP to apologise for past slights, since it has made similar overtures to fellow unity government allies from Sarawak.

“I agree with the Umno president’s speech... where he called for its members to move on from the past for the sake of the country,” he said.

Unease within Umno has grown in recent months over the partnership with decades-old enemies from PH.

Criticism of DAP and even Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli, who is deputy president of Mr Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat, climaxed on Thursday when Umno Youth chief Akmal Saleh demanded that DAP apologise and “ensure that all their insults, anti-Malay, anti-Islam, racist and communist-centric statements will not happen in the unity government”.

Although Dr Zahid had dismissed the call, Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan said it was a “good suggestion” for DAP to show it could be magnanimous.