M’sia Bersatu Internal Election: Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin re-elected President amidst the party’s internal and external turmoil

Malaysia — Malaysian Prime Minister (PM) Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has officially been re-elected as the president of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) for the 2019-2022 term.

The popular opposition party formed four years ago to challenge Malaysia’s ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, announced the results on Sunday (23 Aug). 

Chief Minister of Malaysian state Perak, Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu, was also re-elected as Bersatu deputy president for the same term period.

Both positions were uncontested when the two candidates stood for them. 

Party election committee chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar said the three elected vice-presidents are: Agriculture and Food Industries Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee, Senior Minister (Education) Dr Radzi Jidin and Paya Rumput assemblyman, Datuk Mohd Rafiq Naizamohideen.

Internal and external turmoil in Bersatu; party manoeuvres political strategies to counter instability 

PM Muhyiddin called for an internal election for the first time as revealed on last Thursday (20 Aug) amidst instability within the party. 

A troop of party members exited the party to join the newly-formed party, Pejuang, by ex-PM Mahathir Mohamad who announced it on 7 August. 

On 15 August, Bersatu took out full-page advertisements in mainstream newspapers denouncing the names of members who have been expelled from the party.

The party’s secretary-general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin called it the “name and shame” list which contained 282 individuals. 

External turmoil saw Bersatu struggling to be accepted as an equal partner with its alliance members, Umno, the country’s ruling party since its first election in 1959, and Parti Islam SeMalaysia, the Islamist party that has one million members. 

However, the party seems to be countering this instability by manoeuvring several political changes. 

One of it includes plans to form a new chapter to enable non-bumiputera (non-Mulsim and non-Malays) affiliate members to hold party positions. 

Announced on last Saturday (22 Aug), if the proposal gets accepted, Bersatu will hold an extraordinary general meeting to amend the party constitution and non-bumiputera members will be allowed to be involved in party decisions and hold leadership positions. 

On the same day, Malaysia’s senior minister Azmin Ali and 10 other Members of Parliament (MPs) formally pledged allegiance to Bersatu. 

They were partiless for the last five months when the 11 MPs were sacked from political party Parti Keadilan Rakyat. 

Key leadership positions and Supreme Council members also announced in internal election

In the statement yesterday, Hamid Albar said: “A total of 23,438 delegates cast their votes in divisional meetings nationwide (Saturday, 22 Aug). 

He said from 179 divisions eligible to meet, 177 divisions held their meetings while two divisions failed to convene meetings as they were unable to meet the minimum number of members required for a meeting. 

The election also elected the permanent chairman, deputy permanent chairman, and 20 members of the Supreme Council, he added. 

Among the Supreme Council members are Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz, Deputy Works Minister Datuk Eddin Syazlee Shith and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law), Datuk Shabudin Yahaya.

Results of the Supreme Council election for the 2019 -2022 term:    

Permanent Chairman: Senator Datuk Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah

Deputy Permanent Chairman: Datuk Hashim Suboh

President: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin

Deputy President: Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu

Vice-Presidents: Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee; Dr Radzi Jidin; Datuk Mohd Rafiq Naizamohideen

 Members of Supreme Council:

1.Datuk Seri Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz

2.Abdul Hakim Gulam Hassan

3.Datuk Zainol Fadzi Paharudin

4.Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid

5.Senator Datuk Razali Idris 

6.Datuk Eddin Syazlee Shith

7.Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed

8.Wan Saiful Wan Jan

9.Azlinda Abdul Latif

10.Mohd Taufik Yaacob

11.Mohd Rafiq Mohd Abdullah

12.Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin

13.Datuk Suhaili Abdul Rahman

14.Datuk Dr Saharuddin Jamal

15.Datuk Mohamed Farid Mohamed Zawawi

16.Mohd Zulkifli Zakaria

17.Mohd Yazid Mohd Yunus

18.Datuk Shahbudin Yahaya

19.Datuk Rosol Wahid

20.Shamsilah Siru

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