Malaysia: Government Clears New Party’s Registration

A new opposition party led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and other politicians who broke away from Malaysia’s ruling party Thursday received the government’s provisional approval for its registration.

But in announcing that they had cleared the party’s application in principal, government officials said the United Malaysian Indigenous Party (PPBM) could not use “Bersatu” (United) in its acronym.

“Bersatu” is also associated with the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which heads the ruling coalition and is led by Prime Minister Najib Razak, whom leaders of the new party have vowed to unseat through elections because of allegations of corruption against him. The new party will be allowed to retain the word in its name, officials said.

“The party had initially requested to use ‘Bersatu’ as the party's acronym, but agreed to the change after negotiations with us. The reasons why they can't use ‘Bersatu’ as the party's acronym is to avoid confusion due to six other parties using a similar acronym,” Mohammad Razin Abdullah, director general of the Registrar of Societies (ROS), told BenarNews.

“In principle, we have already approved PPBM as a legitimate party. The only thing left now is that PPBM needs to send us a letter to state the functions and roles of their president and chairman, before we can complete the party’s registration,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told a news conference in Putrajaya that ROS – which his ministry oversees – had provisionally approved the new party’s application for registration. No other changes were made to its original application, but the new party was required to use “PPBM” as an acronym, he said.

“Pursuant to my announcement, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia [the United Malaysian Indigenous Party] has been approved today with no amendments, and they have registered the acronym as PPBM,” Zahid told reporters, according to local media.

Reacting to the announcement, PPBM founding member Syed Saddiq said it could now lay the groundwork for building up its membership and wooing voters. Still, he criticized ROS for not allowing the party to keep “Bersatu” in its acronym.

“It still shows a very strong sense of fear from the establishment …,” Syed told BenarNews.

‘Sons of the soil’

Mahathir, 91, will serve as chairman of the new party and former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will be its president.

Both men were among some longtime leaders and members of UMNO, who quit the party in protest of a financial scandal that has shadowed Najib since July 2105, and is linked to state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Najib sacked Muhyiddin back then for criticizing him in public over the allegations of wrong-doing at 1MDB, which the prime minister has denied.

Mahathir, Muhyiddin and other ex-senior members of UMNO say their new party will strive to clean up government and bring institutional reforms.

Although the party says that it will represent “all Malaysians” in multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysia, Mahathir this week acknowledged in an interview with BenarNews that the party would be based on race and looking to draw members from the country’s ethnic Malay majority.

According to party officials, the membership will comprise Bumiputera (“sons of the soil”) citizens, who include Malays and indigenous peoples from the East Malaysia states of Sabah and Sarawak, and that non-Bumiputera citizens will be recognized as associate members.

“[T]he people in the rural areas in particular, who make up the majority of the Malays, they are concerned about their race, and if you don’t cater to them, you are not going anywhere. You may have high ethics and all that but you [will] lose election,” Mahathir told BenarNews.

“What good is it becoming a party that loses election and is not going to be able to implement all its grand ideas? So we form a party that is race based,” the former PM added.

Haireez Azeem Azizi contributed to this report.