At the heart of the opposition coalition’s problems is a bitter feud within Bersatu, with Supreme Council member Wan Saiful Wan Jan’s scathing criticism of secretary-general Azmin Ali laying bare the party’s deepening disunity.
Last Monday, Wan Saiful accused Azmin and Bersatu information chief Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz of intimidating division leaders allegedly involved in efforts to unseat party president Muhyiddin Yassin.
He insisted that signatures collected by the party’s grassroots leaders were not intended to be used to overthrow Muhyiddin but to push back against premature discussions on Bersatu’s prime ministerial candidate ahead of its Sept 9 annual general assembly.
The extent of the discord was made clear during the assembly. Just a few hours before Muhyiddin’s keynote address, 122 out of 169 division chiefs gathered for lunch five kilometres away.
When Muhyiddin later alluded to attempts to remove him, the hall descended into chaos. Delegates eventually endorsed him as Bersatu’s prime ministerial candidate, although the episode revealed a president under siege.
Fueling the crisis is a deeper power struggle over Bersatu’s future leadership.
A poison-pen letter circulated before the assembly accused deputy president Hamzah Zainudin of plotting to take over the top post, alleging he had fabricated a “Gopeng consensus” in which Muhyiddin supposedly agreed to step aside.
In his speech at the assembly, Hamzah warned party members against toxic practices, including “backstabbing” and “poison-pen letters”, and said Bersatu was “one big family” that must remain united.
The infighting then turned personal, with Wan Saiful claiming Azmin to be “unfit” to lead, which Azmin brushed aside as part of a “culture of slander” that risks tearing the party apart. Several Bersatu state chapters responded by calling for Wan Saiful’s expulsion, while others advised him to focus on his corruption cases.
For a party premised on Malay unity, Bersatu now appears splintered into rival factions, risking an implosion similar to those that have plagued other Malay-based parties in the past.
PAS’s dilemma
Meanwhile, PN’s other major component, PAS, faces its own leadership dilemma. Though less immediate, questions linger over the future of party president Abdul Hadi Awang.
He and deputy Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man were returned unopposed at last month’s muktamar, ensuring continuity. Yet speculation about Hadi’s health and ability to lead persists.
Although Hadi led PAS to its best-ever electoral performance in 2022, analysts have claimed that the party has since plateaued. Its dominance in Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis remains firm, but a failure to appeal to non-Malay voters has stunted the Islamic party’s national ambitions.
Calls for the leadership mantle to be handed over to technocrats such as Terengganu menteri besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar have fallen on deaf ears.
Another unresolved question is who PN should name as its prime ministerial candidate. Bersatu has moved early by calling for Muhyiddin, 78, to remain the coalition’s face, but Hadi has publicly called for the age ceiling to be set at 70.
Hamzah, 68, is often talked up as a potential candidate, but his nomination would likely provoke backlash from Muhyiddin and Azmin loyalists.
While the unity government can point to its policy achievements, PN risks heading into the Sabah state election in the short term, and GE16 over the longer term, without a clear leader or coherent messaging.