Page 62 - Towards_a_New_Malaysia_The_2018_Election_and_Its_6146371_(z-lib.org)

Elite Fragmentation and Party Splits 47

1969. Nonetheless, UMNO still captured 71 seats, contributing signi cantly
to BN’s overall haul of 127 out of 180 parliamentary seats. Semangat ’46
failed to survive beyond two elections; it was dissolved after its poor showing
in 1995. Razaleigh, along with other Semangat ’46 members, subsequently
rejoined UMNO.
In the late 1990s, UMNO went through yet another spilt, resulting in the
mass-based Reformasi (reformation) movement that sought to unseat Mahathir.
e latter’s decision to sack Anwar Ibrahim as deputy prime minister and deputy
president of UMNO in 1998 triggered the split. e falling-out between the
two UMNO strongmen was mainly due to their con icting approaches to
managing the country’s economy in response to the 1997 Asian currency crisis
(Gomez and Kaur 2014). However, Mahathir said publicly that the dismissal
was due to Anwar’s sexual impropriety and corruption, justi cations widely
perceived to be fabricated. Many Anwar loyalists left UMNO and formed a
new multiethnic party, Parti Keadilan Nasional (Keadilan, National Justice
Party), just a few months before the 1999 general election. e 1998 UMNO
split had a yet more devastating e ect on the party than prior episodes.
UMNO lost 17 more seats to the opposition, reducing its share of seats from
89 in 1995 to 72 in 1999. Interestingly, PAS was the biggest bene ciary of the
UMNO split, not Keadilan: the former secured 27 parliamentary seats and
control of two state governments (in Kelantan and Terengganu). Keadilan, on
the other hand, performed quite miserably, taking only 5 parliamentary seats.
Nonetheless, unlike other UMNO splinter parties, Keadilan has survived
beyond two elections and has even thrived in its pursuit to replace UMNO as
the biggest Malay party. In 2003, Keadilan merged with Parti Rakyat Malaysia
(PRM, Malaysian People’s Party) to become today’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat
(PKR, People’s Justice Party).
As GE14 approached, UMNO found itself again in crisis. Due largely to
the 1MDB debacle, the party split once again, leading to the rise of a breakaway
party, Bersatu, announced in late 2016 and launched o cially in January
2017. is new party has among its ranks former Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad, former deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, and Mahathir’s
son, Mukhriz, who was formerly chief minister of the important Malay-belt
state of Kedah. Exacerbating this macro-level rift, too, were endemic lower-
level party feuds, due to stepped-up crony-based patronage (Gomez and Kaur
2014).
In Sabah in particular, UMNO has experienced continuous splits among its
warlords, who command signi cant personal support among party members
and the general public. e Malay party rst spread its wings in Sabah in 1991,

This content downloaded from 139.80.253.0 on Fri, 06 Nov 2020 04:21:53 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms