What PPBM must do to be as powerful as Umno once was
PPBM needs a mechanism that will ensure those who have miraculously appeared in the party do not miraculously become top leaders in the party.
(MMO) – At Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s (PPBM) annual general meeting (AGM) this weekend, the splinter Umno party is expected to debate how to shore up power despite making up less than 7 per cent of Parliament.
This includes whether to accept former lawmakers and members of Umno who left the Malay nationalist party when it lost power for the first time in history after governing the country for over six decades.
The previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration had always been clearly led by Umno, which usually had the biggest share of Parliament, but the ruling Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) two largest parties are multiracial PKR and Chinese-dominant DAP with 50 and 42 seats respectively, compared to Malay nationalist PPBM’s 15.
“Currently, DAP is the dominant party in PH, but I believe PPBM must be the dominant party in the coalition,” a PPBM delegate from Kedah told Malay Mail on condition of anonymity.
The anonymous delegate from Kedah pointed out that regardless of the situation, the Umno defectors will do their best to join a PH party and it was better for them to join PPBM instead of other coalition parties.
He believed it was very important for PH as a whole to have a strong Malay-based party leading the coalition — akin to how Umno had led BN — and argued that many current PPBM and PKR members had come from Umno’s ranks in the first place.
“We are taking them in because we don’t want them to join other parties. If not us, it will be PKR because many PPBM members and PKR members were from Umno.
