Amanah Youth chief Hasbie Muda pointed out that the former prime minister founded Bersatu as an Umno splinter party, before leaving and setting up another offshoot, Pejuang, which further split the Malay votes.
“If Mahathir is truly committed to the unity agenda, he should prove it by returning to Umno,” Hasbie told FMT.
Separately, Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi said Mahathir failed to realise that he was the cause of Malay parties losing political dominance.
He said this disunity was caused by Mahathir’s desire to return to power after initially retiring from politics.
“When that failed, he was willing to split Umno and wanted to ‘kill off’ the party by creating Bersatu. In the end, he failed, and so did his last effort to establish a big Malay umbrella,” he said, referring to the now-defunct Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) alliance.
The Rengit assemblyman also challenged Mahathir to set aside his ego and join Umno’s “Rumah Bangsa” initiative if he is genuine about uniting the Malay race.
“It would be the better and more rational move for him to rejoin Umno with his son, Mukhriz, and his loyal supporters, since Umno is now on the rise again,” said Puad.
Earlier today, Mahathir said no single Malay party could dominate the political arena as the proliferation of parties had fragmented the Malays and set them against one another.
“The fault lies with the Malays themselves,” the former prime minister said.
Mahathir – who previously led Umno, Bersatu and Pejuang – has launched several attempts to unite the Malays through the years.
He formed the GTA alliance, involving Malay parties, NGOs, academics and professionals, in August 2022 and contested the general election that year, but every candidate lost their deposit, including Mahathir himself.
On the other hand, Bersatu Supreme Council member Razali Idris said Mahathir’s statement was the “bitter truth”, citing the number of Malay political parties in the arena, such as Umno, PAS, Bersatu and Pejuang.
However, he said this failure should not be blamed on the Malays as a whole but leaders who engaged in power struggles before going on to form new parties.
“As a figure who had led the country as well as several political movements, Mahathir himself is not exempt from this (political) dynamic since he was involved with the establishment of parties like Bersatu and Pejuang,” Razali said.
The Terengganu executive councillor added that Mahathir was trying to distance himself from his past failures.