Last Saturday I attended the first annual general meeting of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM). I spent 2017 studying new Malay-based parties in the country, especially Parti Amanah Negara and PPBM. So, when I received the invitation to observe PPBM’s first AGM, of course I didn’t waste the chance.

The first thing I noticed was how tight security was. Clearly PPBM has learnt from the security lapse at their ‘Nothing to Hide 2.0’ event in August, when flares and chairs were hurled at their Chairman Tun Mahathir Mohamad. This time, it felt like getting into an airport, with security personnel checking your bags and scanning your body.

Other than the delegates debate that took place in the afternoon, the main attraction was the speeches by Mahathir and PPBM President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Muhyiddin’s speech came first. His speech was carefully structured to fire up the crowd.

Muhyiddin started off with a reminder to the delegates about the history of the young party. How the early members had to raise funds by themselves to pay for the set up of the party, including setting up divisional offices across the country.

The hard work paid off. In just 15 months, they have set up 137 divisions across the country, with another 21 in the process of being registered.

Muhyiddin also took the Registrar of Societies to task. He described how they never received formal replies quickly enough. And they struggled to get definitive answers directly from the ROS, only to later hear threats of deregistration being announced in the media.

As can be expected, Muhyiddin also listed various allegations of corruption against the government. He claimed that in Budget 2018, a huge sum of RM 30 billion, or 75 percent of the total GST collection, had to be allocated just for servicing government debts.

I hope the government will answer to this allegation because it is huge sum, more than twice the mount of money allocated to the Ministry of Higher Education.

When Mahathir took to the stage, he upped the ante further. His speech was designed to create a distinction between PPBM and UMNO.

In his line of argument, UMNO has changed from a party that was guarding the interest of the Malays and the country, to one that is being used by their top leaders only to save themselves. PPBM on the other hand, despite being new, is the one that is continuing the real fight to safeguard Malay interests.

To be more specific, Mahathir said “UMNO has been hijacked by Najib and UMNO no longer belongs to the people. Najib’s UMNO is not the one set up by the people on 11 May 1946. A vote for UMNO today is a vote for kleptocracy, not democracy.”

This is a big claim and I am sure many others will argue both for and against it. It is an attempt by Mahathir to claim the right to speak for, and represent, the Malays. This is an important narrative to legitimise the existence of PPBM as a Malay party.

I am not sure if PPBM can convince the country with this narrative quickly enough for GE14. UMNO is entrenched in the psyche of both rural and urban Malays. Dislodging UMNO from that position is not going to be an easy task.

In fact, I think among the Malays, the urbanites are more difficult for PPBM to attract than the rural villagers. They may have the façade of being more educated and analytical, but in reality they have a lot more to lose if a change were to occur.

The urban, middle and upper-class Malays also tend to complain in private, but the pretend heroism does not follow outside of their comfort zones. PPBM will have a very difficult time to get them into the ranks before GE14.

I asked several delegates how they feel about the party. The vast majority were clearly committed to PPBM’s cause and they see it as a long haul, way beyond Mahathir or Muhyiddin. To them it is about the survival of the Malay agenda under an honest leadership.

Their biggest worry is how the mainstream media will portray them. One person even became rather hostile when I told him that I am a columnist in this newspaper. They simply do not feel the media is fair to them.

Personally, I relish the establishment of new political parties. It does not matter to me whether these new parties are with Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Harapan or neither. The most important thing for me is political competition.

A liberal democracy functions only when multiple parties are strong enough to challenge one another. The establishment of new political parties is a good thing in my eyes. As we get closer to GE14, let me say, may the best party win!

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First published for Sin Chew Daily, TheStar, 2 Jan 2018
Wan Saiful is Chief Executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, Director of the Southeast Asia Network for Development and Chairman of the Istanbul Network for Liberty.