PAS ends 6-year partnership with Bersatu, says it's necessary 'bitter pill' for unity agenda

PAS has ended its six-year partnership with Bersatu over which parties should be allowed to join Perikatan Nasional (PN) and over “broken promises”.

Special meeting

The decision was announced on the evening of Jun. 9 by PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang after a special meeting of the PAS central working committee.

He was quoted by The Star as saying that PAS had decided to “terminate all political cooperation with Bersatu, and to review the position and future direction of PAS-Bersatu relations”.

Relations between the two parties have been poor since Bersatu led a political manoeuvre to oust PAS from the Menteri Besar (Chief minister) position in the northern state of Perlis in late 2025.

Criticism of this move eventually led to Bersatu President and former Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin resigning as chairman of the PN coalition.

Muhyiddin was replaced as PN chairman by PAS Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, the PAS MB of Terengganu.

Despite this, issues between the two parties were not fully resolved, with Abdul Hadi announcing that PAS will “review its cooperation with Bersatu” in May and now deciding to dissolve the partnership.

Unilateral actions

The New Straits Times (NST) quoted PAS Secretary-General Takiyuddin Hassan as saying that the root of the problems between the two parties was due to “the unilateral actions of certain Bersatu leaders.”

Denying it was the responsibility of Abdul Hadi and PAS leaders, Takiyuddin said that PAS had chosen to “remain silent to safeguard PN’s unity” in the face of “outright insults” by some in Bersatu, including being portrayed as “incompetent”.

The main splitting point appears to be around whether Bersatu has been blocking other political parties from joining the PN coalition.

PAS Information Chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari said that his party’s priority “had always been Muslim unity”, as reported by NST, and he described the split with Bersatu as a necessary "bitter pill" for PAS' Muslim unity agenda.

Ahmad Fadhli said that Bersatu’s previous rejection of proposals to include other parties, such as Pejuang, led by the son of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Pejuang Chairman Mukhriz Mahathir, had made further cooperation difficult.

Despite the ending of the partnership with Bersatu, PAS remains a member of the PN coalition “for now”, Ahmad Fadhli said.

When asked about the status of the coalition on Jun. 8, Ahmad Fadhli said that “as of tonight” PAS remains in PN.

Six years of partnership

PN was formed in 2020, in the aftermath of the “Sheraton move”, which saw the Pakatan Harapan government led by Mahathir ousted in favour of a new government led by the defecting Bersatu MPs.

Those Bersatu MPs then formed an alliance with PAS, and together with the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional, would govern for a year before being ousted by a governing partner in the form of UMNO, although both PAS and Bersatu would remain in government until the 2022 general election.

PN consists of four parties, PAS by far being the largest with 43 seats in Malaysia’s parliament, Bersatu with 19, having lost six to defection and six to expulsion, and GERAKAN and the MIPP holding no seats.

Tensions between the current government’s various factions have led to speculation that a fresh general election might be called sooner rather than later.

The PAS-Bersatu split adds more intrigue to an already fragmented political situation in Malaysia.