KUALA LUMPUR – When Malaysia’s grand old party wrapped up its annual congress earlier this month, its president made a bid to
rally the country’s Malay political parties into a “grand coalition”
.
On Jan 17, at the closing of UMNO’s party congress, Dr Zahid Hamidi urged disparate groups to set aside their differences “for the sake of Islam and for the sake of the Malays”, with loose and informal cooperation as a starting point.
But the call was hardly new and unlikely to be taken up, said analysts.
Indeed, it was swiftly shot down by several figures including former premier Muhyiddin Yassin, leader of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.
The idea of a broad Malay unity has been repeatedly revived since the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition
was defeated in the 2018 general election
. Before that, UMNO had long assumed the position of the de facto party of the Malays, having trounced successive challengers for that role since Independence in 1957.
Political analyst Azmi Hassan at the Nusantara Academy of Strategic Research describes Dr Zahid’s grand coalition vision as a rehash of a movement championed by former prime minister Mahathir Mohammed in June 2025, just that the proposition is now led by UMNO. Incidentally, UMNO had rejected Dr Mahathir’s suggestion almost immediately.
In June 2025, the party declined an invitation from Tun Mahathir to join the Malay Secretariat. Instead of being a political party, this secretariat was pitched as a broad movement to unify Malays across political lines and serve as a platform to address socio-political and cultural challenges facing the community.
Mr Azmi told The Straits Times that while all Malay groups agree that there needs to be Malay unity, they cannot agree on who to lead the process and what it would look like.
“UMNO would say, ‘Let us be the champion because of past records, pre- and post-Independence’,” he said. “The party was the lead actor in galvanising Malay unity for independence after all.”
Already, reactions to UMNO’s grand coalition idea have been lukewarm or even hostile.
On Jan 21, Muhyiddin Yassin poured cold water on his UMNO counterpart’s idea, saying no Malay unity could happen “as long as UMNO cooperates with DAP”.
“This needs to be answered before any further discussions are held,” he said.
The Democratic Action Party (DAP) is a member of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan coalition, while UMNO is part Mr Anwar’s unity government.
Formed as the successor party to the Malaysian branch of Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP), the DAP has long been seen as a Chinese-based party and a threat to Malay-dominated politics.
Similarly, Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) president Abdul Hadi Awang also signalled that the party is not moved by Dr Zahid’s proposal, saying the parties that make up the current government are “silent devils”.
“This is the reason PAS is not with the unity government, which is based on a free concept unbounded by Allah’s decree, realised by the Pakatan Harapan government involving groups professing pluralism, liberalism, including extremist groups as well as silent devils towards wrongdoing and others,” he said in a post on Facebook on Jan 19.
Tunku Mohar Mokhtar, an expert in political science, told ST the idea that Malays are being “threatened” and need political unity to survive is more about the survival of political players than the community.
“Malays are only ‘threatened’ when one leader, be it Muhyiddin or Hadi or Mahathir or whoever, is not in power,” said Mr Mohar, who is from the International Islamic University Malaysia.
He said that despite the much touted perception that the status of Malays is at risk, Malay political survival in Malaysia is in no way threatened.
“There are adequate constitutional and institutional mechanisms to maintain Malay political survival,” he said.
Still, Mr Azmi sees some merit to UMNO’s call for a grand coalition.
Noting that Dr Zahid’s proposal was not just for political parties, he said the idea to get all Malay groups to talk, albeit informally, would be a good starting point for a new political trajectory for the Malays
He added: “Even though Bersatu, UMNO and PAS all have their own interests, that should not prevent them from sitting down to discuss safeguarding the Malays and Islam.”
