THE Perikatan Nasional (PN) government’s attempt to portray itself as the new champion of Malay-Muslim unity is a sham that has instead exposed disorder and factionalism among the parties, said a report from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

Although cast as a “Malay-Muslim front” to combat the multi-ethnic Pakatan Harapan, PN has “exposed an unacknowledged disorder of the political system, the parlous state of their Malay politics,” Prof Khoo Boo Teik wrote in his essay entitled “Malay Politics: Parlous Condition, Continuing Problems”.

The article, published in ISEAS’ Trends in Southeast Asia (November 17, 2020), listed four problems in Malay politics: absence of Malay unity, unresolved claims, extreme party factionalism and subverted leadership transitions.

The notion of “Malay unity” was created by Malay nationalists in their rejection of the British-sponsored Malayan Union in the decade before independence in 1957.

Umno adopted the idea for use in its concept of modern Malay politics, said Khoo.

The second problem of unresolved claims refers to the standard avowal of all the Malay parties, whether Umno, PAS, Bersatu, Amanah or Pejuang, to protect Malay rights.

“Their number is a sure sign that none of them has an uncontested claim,” said Khoo, who is formerly a collaborating researcher for the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.

Khoo is Professor Emeritus at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, Japan.

He said Malay political parties were also driven by factionalism – the third problem – and this was particularly so with PN.

PN parties comprised a disputed rump of Bersatu; a breakaway faction of PKR; a truncated Umno whose MPs defected to Bersatu after GE14; and a diminished PAS which lost a sizeable segment, including its leaders, who left to form Amanah before GE14, said Khoo.

“From the beginning, PN is effectively factionalised because of the uneasy relationship between Umno and the defectors from Bersatu and PKR.

“Virtually all those Bersatu and PKR MPs were once Umno members.

“Yet Bersatu’s gain must be offset against Umno’s insistence that it supports but does not belong to PN. Instead Umno declares that its true coalition is Muafakat Nasional,” he said, referring to a separate pact between Umno and PAS.

“In the next general election, Umno intends to contest all the seats that it won in GE14, obviously targeting the seats that Umno ‘traitors’ took to Bersatu.

“Umno has other demands that will complicate intra-PN negotiations over seat allocations and threaten Bersatu’s viability as a party, let alone the lead party of PN,” said Khoo.

Bersatu, though smaller than Umno, leads the PN government with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin as the party president.

Khoo said the PN regime was fixated on surviving the machinations of its allies to the point it neglected policy-making in a time of pandemic and economic contraction.

Khoo noted that while PN accuses DAP of threatening the special position of the Malays, and Anwar Ibrahim of betraying the Malays, what it truly feared were the pro-market and good governance measures they would bring.

These measures would be anti-statist (opposing government intervention in personal, social and economic affairs) and anti-oligarchic (against power in the hands of a few) – which would leave uncompetitive Malay businesses unprotected.

Fears that Malays would lose out were exaggerated for political gain, Khoo said.

The PH government, of which DAP is part, was not anti-Malay in its economic policies or financial management, but was painted as such way to stoke  such fears.

PN is also unable to effectively tackle its rival Malay parties that brought down Umno in GE14 because none of its current leaders have the “authority” or “imagination, Khoo added.

“Muhyiddin Yassin is unwell, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi may be convicted any day, and Mohamed Azmin Ali has no influence outside his little band.

“Either way, Malay politics (rejected) reform and turned inwards, only to fall upon itself,” said Khoo. – December 13, 2020.