by

July 7, 2026

10 minutes

Read Time

Johor state polls: PAS’ bid to revive ties with UMNO has failed, says Bersatu chief Muhyiddin

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin tells CNA that his Bersatu party remains focused on making gains in the Johor polls despite its fractured ties with PAS under opposition coalition Perikatan Nasional.

New: You can now listen to articles.

This audio is generated by an AI tool.

Amir Yusof

Read a summary of this article on FAST.

Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.

Click here to return to FAST
Tap here to return to FAST

FAST

MUAR, Johor: Attempts by Malaysia’s key opposition party Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) to revive ties with its old rival United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) ahead of the Jul 11 Johor state election have so far failed, says former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, whose own party Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) has fallen out with PAS.

His comments come amid tensions within Malaysia’s Perikatan Nasional (PN) opposition coalition – which PAS and Bersatu are both part of – and as PN heads into the Johor polls divided over how closely it should work with its long-time rival, the Barisan Nasional (BN) pact.

UMNO is BN’s lynchpin party and Johor is deemed to be its stronghold. UMNO and PAS are Malaysia’s two largest Malay-Muslim parties.

“I have heard that even before the election started PAS was trying to woo UMNO and to work together, but it failed,” Muhyiddin told CNA in an interview on Sunday (July 5).

“So when you say there’s a collaboration, it has failed, but PAS will not stop what they’ve been doing to continue to sort of try to embrace UMNO. But I think until today they have not been successful,” added the 79-year-old Bersatu president, who claimed that PAS and UMNO had not been able to reach an agreement on quid pro quo arrangements for seats to contest.

The campaign for the Johor state election has crossed the mid-way stage with BN and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) pact hotly contesting all 56 seats, even though BN and PH are partners at the federal level.

Meanwhile, despite their ongoing rift, PAS and Bersatu candidates are both campaigning under the PN banner. The parties are fielding 16 and 11 candidates respectively.

PAS unilaterally decided to sever ties with Bersatu last month, claiming that the latter had become “power-hungry” and failed to prioritise Malay-Muslim unity in the country.

The move has paved the way for PAS to seek new partnerships that could reshape the political battle lines in subsequent state polls and ultimately the federal election, analysts previously told CNA.

Guess Word
Crack the word, one row at a time

Buzzword
Create words using the given letters

Mini Sudoku
Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser

Mini Crossword
Small grid, big challenge

Word Search
Spot as many words as you can

Show Less

Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president Muhyiddin Yassin (left) and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia president Abdul Hadi Awang at the latter’s annual general meeting on Sep 15, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Aqil Haziq Mahmud)

PAS-BERSATU TIES IN LIMBO

Ahead of nomination day for the Johor polls, Malaysian media had reported on the prospect of possible cooperation between PAS and UMNO.

Notably, PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man openly urged UMNO to collaborate, expressing willingness to revive a defunct political alliance pact, Muafakat Nasional.

However, BN’s incumbent chief minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi later maintained that BN would be contesting the polls solo and would not have pacts with any parties, an indication that talks had broken down.

CNA understands that BN had offered a PAS candidate the chance to contest a seat in Muar under the BN ticket and logo, but this was subsequently rejected by PAS’ leadership.

In spite of this, PAS has since continued to extend gestures of goodwill, including asking its members to vote for BN in seats that PN are not contesting.

“That is what we have emphasised (to PAS members). Do not vote for Pakatan Harapan,” Tuan Ibrahim was quoted as saying by local media.

Party president Abdul Hadi Awang also stressed that PAS does not want Johor to be governed by “liberals or non-Muslims”, fuelling further speculation of closer cooperation with UMNO.

In contrast, Muhyiddin said that Bersatu supporters could vote freely in seats not contested by PN, further outlining a disconnect with PAS’ approach.

“Normally a leader of a party will not say ‘please support the opposition’ … (to) reduce the number of seats for PH in Johor. It does not make sense,” he told CNA.

“As far as I’m concerned, we don’t direct our people to vote for opposition – we just say support Perikatan Nasional and (for areas where we are not contesting) they can vote for anybody else, it is their own right to choose whomever they want,” added Muhyiddin.

Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) president Muhyiddin Yassin gestures during an interview with CNA in Muar, Johor on Jul 5, 2026. (Photo: CNA/Zamzahuri Abas)

When asked whether this could sow uncertainty among PN grassroots and supporters, he acknowledged that there may be “some confusion” given the issues PAS and Bersatu are facing within PN, but maintained that the cooperation at least continues for Johor.

“We (Bersatu) are just focused on winning the 16 seats we are fighting for. Fortunately, we only fight with the rest of the parties, PH, BN. We don’t come face to face with each other – (that is) PAS vs Bersatu,” said Muhyiddin.

“So in a way that helps us,” he added.

In a separate interview with CNA last week, PN information chief and PAS central committee member Annuar Musa said that that PAS is keen for a pact with UMNO ahead of the next general election, reviving the Muafakat Nasional cooperation the two held from 2020 to 2022 when both parties were in government, alongside Bersatu.

“We believe Johor is the starting point, even if the actual Muafakat Nasional may not be established or finalised, but at least in terms of spirit we must show that we are quite willing to work together,” he added.

On whether the pact would include Bersatu, Annuar did not rule this out.

He said that PAS has been keen to sell this idea within PN but there have been “obvious differences in opinion”, adding that Muhyiddin had argued that bringing more parties into the coalition would result in issues when allocating seats to contest between too many Malay political parties.

“We are quite willing to go step by step, but ultimately the objective is to bring all Malay political parties to come under one umbrella,” Annuar added.

BERSATU EYES WRESTING JOHOR FROM BN IN FUTURE POLLS

Since PAS severed ties with Bersatu, Muhyiddin has maintained that his party would not leave PN but is “ready to fight on all fronts” against its erstwhile ally.

Both parties have also traded barbs over the recent return of Hamzah Zainudin as Malaysia’s opposition leader.

Hamzah was Muhyiddin’s deputy in Bersatu but was sacked in February amid infighting in the party.

Hamzah unveiled his new party – the Parti Wawasan Negara (Wawasan) – in June, and his role as opposition leader has cast the spotlight on Bersatu’s position in PN.

Bersatu secured 31 seats in the last general election in 2022, but that has since dwindled.

Its representation first fell to 25 after six MPs were sacked for supporting Anwar’s administration. It fell further to 19 following Hamzah’s sacking and those aligned to him.

Despite the official count, media reports suggest that the number of Bersatu MPs backing Muhyiddin is less than that.

Still, Muhyiddin told CNA that the party leadership is using the Johor polls as a litmus test on how the party can move forward in “the context of the new political situation”.

“I want to see how far Bersatu has penetrated into the hearts and minds of people,” he told CNA.

“And whatever the outcome of this will give me a very strong indication where we are heading. It’s not just in Johor, it’s (also) in the other states. Elections are coming in Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Pahang and later on, of course, the general election,” he added.

He added that Bersatu is also looking to alter its image and attract non-Muslims for support, something the right-wing conservative party has grappled with given its ties with PAS.

To help with this, Muhyiddin said Bersatu has amended its constitution to induct non-Muslim members into its supreme council and formed a “multi-racial wing” called Bersekutu which admits non-Bumiputera members.

“So we don’t just talk about Malays, we talk about Malaysians. I believe this is very important as far as our ideology is concerned,” he said.

Muhyiddin has a strong base in northern Johor, having served as federal member of parliament for Pagoh for almost four decades.

Bersatu is incumbent in two Johor seats – in Bukit Kepong and Endau.

He told CNA that with PN contesting 33 seats out of 56, and Bersatu in 16 of these, the target is not to form the next state government but rather to make in-roads in the southern state.

He acknowledged that BN still has a strong base in the state, something the former Johor chief minister said he helped build when serving in the party from 1971 to 2016, where he rose the ranks to be deputy prime minister to Najib Razak.

Najib Razak (right), walks past Muhyiddin Yassin during the party’s annual congress in Kuala Lumpur in December 2015. (File photo: AFP/Mohd Rasfan)

But he did not rule out Bersatu wresting control of Johor from BN and UMNO in subsequent polls.

“That will take a lot of effort, resources and a lot of time. So you have to be realistic, you start one step at a time,” he said.

“What do you expect from Johor’s election? I would expect that we should perform better (than in the 2022 polls),” said Muhyiddin.

Muhyiddin said he believed that there were flaws in the incumbent BN government in Johor, in spite of strides in investments and growth.

He posited that under the current BN leadership, the incomes of Johoreans have not kept pace with inflation, saying that youths were not trained for jobs in areas like technology, which were key for the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone.

“When I go down to the ground, I recognise that … people are concerned about their livelihoods … it is overwhelming,” said Muhyiddin.

“Johor can do better than that,” he added.

He also cited uneven development in the state, pointing to how during his campaign trail in Kota Tinggi, he saw that the area had declined in tourism offerings and basic amenities like hotels.

“This is one classic example of uneven development. When you think there’s growth, you don’t go down to the ground and see whether everybody is okay or only some people are okay, or most people are not okay,” said Muhyiddin.

He said moving forward, amid Malaysia’s changing political landscape, these are the issues Bersatu wants to hone in on.

“We believe issues that are important to every Malaysian are issues of economy, dealing with high cost of living, healthcare, education, and many other things as well,” said Muhyiddin.

“We will not leave any stone unturned to make sure that we deal with all aspects of Malaysian life,” he added.

Additional reporting by Afifah Ariffin