In an interview with FMT, Mahathir said that during his tenure as prime minister and party president from 1981 to 2003, Umno “had all the Malays” — a stark contrast to the current fragmentation of the party’s once formidable support base.
“There was already Malay unity. This Malay unity gave the Malays strength and they won elections.
“There was no dispute as to who was going to lead the party or who would succeed the leader,” he said.
However, Mahathir said the situation changed after he stepped down as prime minister and Umno president.
He explained that the ensuing fragmentation within Umno made it difficult to identify a single leader who commanded universal backing, resulting in ongoing struggles for the country’s premiership.
“Umno members did not join one party, they joined many parties. They broke themselves up into four or five parties,” he said.
“After I stepped down, there was always this struggle to become prime minister. It should be that the deputy prime minister will succeed the prime minister.
“But now, everybody thinks that they can become prime minister.”
Mahathir added that this shift forced political leaders to accommodate multiple parties in order to maintain Malay support.
“If we say only one person can become prime minister, then the others will not support him. To gain the support of all the Malays, all the Malay parties must be given a chance to become prime minister,” he said.
The former leader’s remarks come amid ongoing debate about the state of Malay political unity, with several splinter parties vying for influence in a landscape once dominated by Umno.
Malay political power is currently divided among Umno, Bersatu, PAS, PKR, Amanah and smaller parties.
In June, Mahathir established a “Malay secretariat committee” in an effort to advocate for Malay interests under one “big umbrella”.
The longtime former Umno president, who later led Bersatu, Pejuang and the Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) coalition, said the alliance would serve as a loose coalition of Malays, rather a formal political party.