Who will lead Malaysia’s opposition bloc? Impasse continues as PAS and Bersatu can’t seem to agree

KUALA LUMPUR - The two key political parties of Malaysia’s main opposition alliance, Perikatan Nasional (PN), can’t agree on who should lead the coalition.

After weeks of uncertainty following former premier Muhyiddin Yassin’s Dec 30 announcement that he was

stepping down as the coalition’s chairman

, a proposal by one party to end the leadership impasse has now been turned down by the other.

In a letter dated Jan 27 to the presidents of PN’s component parties, Muhyiddin, president of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), one of the key parties under PN, said the bloc was moving to scrap its chairman post.

Instead, the coalition would be run by a Presidential Council led by Bersatu and an Executive Council led by Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), the other key party. He said the proposal was agreed on at a Jan 16 meeting between Bersatu and PAS.

But on Jan 28, PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan in a statement said the party regretted that the content of the letter from the Bersatu president had been widely circulated, and published in the media.

PAS could not confirm its agreement with everything in it, he said, particularly the proposals to form a Presidential Council and abolish the post of chairman.

The latest disagreement has further underlined how PAS and Bersatu, which together hold 67 seats in Parliament, cannot see eye to eye on who should lead the coalition. Analysts say the continued uncertainty does not reflect well on the bloc.

PN is Malaysia’s main opposition force and the only political bloc with sufficient parliamentary strength, state-level control and voter support to mount a credible challenge to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s multi-party government.

Political observers are watching to see who will emerge as PN’s next chairman and, by extension, its potential prime ministerial candidate at the next general election, which has to be called by early 2028.

PAS president Hadi Awang had previously said that the

next PN leader would come from his party

.

But while PAS dominates the coalition in terms of seats and grassroots machinery, Bersatu remains closely associated with PN’s leadership and national profile.

In his letter, Muhyiddin wrote: “The primary role of the Presidential Council is to serve as the highest body responsible for setting Perikatan Nasional’s policy directions, while the Executive Council will oversee the administration of the coalition in line with the policies determined by the Presidential Council.”

He said the two councils are intended to reinforce each other and preserve PN’s image as a moderate, national coalition with support across Malaysia’s multi-ethnic society, including Sabah and Sarawak.

Several names have been floated within the coalition as possibilities to anchor the proposed councils apart from Muhyiddin and Tan Sri Hadi Awang.

Among them is Mr Hadi’s protege, Datuk Seri Samsuri Mokhtar, the Terengganu chief minister and a PAS vice-president, who is often described as a technocratic administrator with governing experience at the state level. Another would be Bersatu deputy president Hamzah Zainudin, who is a former home minister and retains influence within the party’s parliamentary bloc.

Dr Azeem Fazwan Ahmad Farouk, University Sains Malaysia’s Centre for Policy Research director, said the right person to lead the coalition would be someone who can command respect across parties, is seen as a neutral broker, and can manage elite bargaining.

“At this stage, the main concern is to create some semblance of stability. Whoever is chosen to lead needs to have strong backing from their party,” he told The Straits Times.

Analysts caution that the changes proposed by Muhyiddin may not resolve the opposition bloc’s deeper problems.

“It is a step that reduces the tensions between PAS and Bersatu, but ironically creates more public ambiguity about the coalition’s leadership,” Dr Bridget Welsh, honorary research associate with the University of Nottingham’s Asia Research Institute Malaysia, told ST.

Muhyiddin served five years as PN chairman, and cited the need for leadership renewal in his resignation announcement. It came amid rising tensions between PAS and Bersatu over influence, governance and the coalition’s political direction.

Those strains were brought into sharper focus by disputes in the northern state of Perlis, where disagreements over appointments and administration processes highlighted the friction between the two parties.

They weakened Bersatu’s standing within the coalition and were followed by the resignation of several senior figures, including secretary-general Mohamed Azmin Ali, Muhyiddin’s right-hand man and one of PN’s most experienced political operators.

PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin, who is also PN deputy secretary-general, called for an extraordinary meeting of the coalition’s top decision-making Supreme Council on Jan 29, but this meeting was later cancelled. Instead, the presidents of PN’s component parties are set to meet on the same date at a pre-council session at Muhyiddin’s residence.

Dr Welsh said PN’s organisational uncertainty had implications for its effectiveness as an opposition force.

Similarly, former law minister Zaid Ibrahim said the opposition’s inability to settle basic organisational questions was handing an advantage to the government.

“If they can’t manage housekeeping matters, how can they manage the country,” he said in a post published on his Facebook account.

PN first rose to power in 2020 after the

collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government

led by former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, with Muhyiddin governing through the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the alliance lost federal power four years ago, it has since consolidated control across several northern and eastern states and continues to draw strong backing from Malay-Muslim voters.