Malaysia’s Anwar deals with another split with BN in Melaka after Johor poll rout

Malaysia’s unity government is holding firm in Putrajaya, but its uneasy alliance is fraying at the state level after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) moved into opposition in Melaka, even as it reels from a rout by federal partner Barisan Nasional (BN) in Johor.

The split followed a constitutional amendment allowing Melaka’s government to appoint up to seven unelected assembly members with voting rights. PH’s five lawmakers opposed the bill, which passed 23-5 on Tuesday.

Four lawmakers from the Democratic Action Party (DAP), PH’s largest and predominantly ethnic Chinese component, resigned from their government posts in protest and joined Amanah’s Adly Zahari on the opposition bench.

The walkout will not bring down Chief Minister Ab Rauf Yusoh, according to analysts, as BN holds 21 of the 28 seats and can govern alone. But it shows how quickly Anwar’s alliance of former rivals is splintering across Malaysia’s states.

“What has come apart is not a formal agreement, but the spirit of power-sharing created after the unity government was formed in Putrajaya,” said Awang Azman Awang Pawi, a political analyst at the University of Malaya.

BN never needed PH’s numbers in Melaka, Awang said, but handed its coalition partner government posts in the state as a gesture after Malaysia’s inconclusive 2022 general election brought the former rivals together in Putrajaya.