From Alliances To Break-Ups: This Is The List Of PAS’s “Janda”

Every coalition PAS enters eventually reshapes Malaysian politics until it breaks apart under its own weight.

In Brief

PAS has a long history of forming and dissolving coalitions, from Barisan Nasional to Pakatan Rakyat, driven by ideological and strategic tensions.
PAS's latest split from Bersatu in PN follows a consistent pattern of exiting alliances when strategic or ideological limits are reached.

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For more than two decades, PAS has rarely stayed put in any political arrangement for long. The Islamist party’s coalition history reads less like a straight line and more like a cycle of strategic alliances, ideological friction, and eventual separation.

The earliest major experiment came when PAS joined the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), the successor to the Alliance (Perikatan), in the 1970s following the May 13 racial riots. However, the relationship eventually soured after a political crisis in Kelantan, leading to PAS being expelled from the coalition.

The expulsion prompted PAS to forge a new alliance with Semangat 46, led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, the Kelantan prince who dared to challenge Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for Umno president post. This collaboration resulted in the formation of Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah (APU) in 1990. The coalition brought together several Malay- and Islamic-based opposition parties in a bid to challenge BN’s political dominance. Besides PAS and Semangat 46, APU also included smaller parties such as Berjasa, Hamim and the Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (Kimma).

APU achieved a major breakthrough in the 1990 general election, helping PAS wrest control of Kelantan — a state it has continued to govern to this day.

However, relations between PAS and Semangat 46 began to deteriorate after the 1995 general election, amid disagreements over the state’s leadership and the coalition’s administration. Tensions intensified when Semangat 46 simultaneously joined the Gagasan Rakyat coalition, which included DAP, a move that unsettled many PAS grassroots members and further strained ties between the two parties.

The rift reached its climax in May 1996 when Tengku Razaleigh announced that APU had effectively ceased to exist. He subsequently dissolved Semangat 46 in October that year, with the majority of its members returning to Umno, bringing the curtain down on the opposition pact.

During the 1998 Reformasi wave, PAS joined forces with the newly formed opposition coalition, Barisan Alternatif (BA). Alongside then Parti Keadilan Nasional (now PKR) and DAP, the coalition was built on shared hatred against BN rather than ideological alignment.

The unlikely partnership worked though as BA won 42 out 193 parliamentary seats with PAS contributing 27 seats, DAP with 10 seats and Keadilan (5).

Under this coalition, PAS regained Terengganu – where now president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang was its menteri besar.

However, internal contradictions—especially over Islamic law and the role of an Islamic state—quickly surfaced and by the 2004 general election, BA had effectively dissolved. Do note that this was when PAS was under the rule of the late Datuk Fadzil Noor as its president.

PAS would return in a stronger opposition pact in 2008 under the banner of Pakatan Rakyat. This time, the coalition again included PAS, PKR, and DAP, and it marked the most electorally successful opposition alignment in Malaysian history at that point. However, ideological fault lines—particularly over hudud law in Kelantan would gradually widen the rift especially between PAS and DAP.

The tipping point came in 2015, when PAS severed ties with DAP – much like what happened in Perikatan Nasional (PN) now, no? – effectively collapsing PR and ending one of the strongest opposition coalitions of the decade in Malaysia.

In its aftermath, PAS then formed Gagasan Sejahtera in 2016 with Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia and Berjasa. While it offered PAS greater ideological control, the coalition failed to gain significant electoral traction and remained politically marginal in the broader national contest.

The political landscape shifted again in 2019 with the formation of Muafakat Nasional between PAS and Umno. It was an unexpected reconciliation between two long-time rivals rooted in Malay-Muslim political consolidation.

For a brief period, the partnership appeared formidable, uniting major segments of the Malay electorate. But tensions over seat allocations, leadership direction, and competing alliances—particularly Umno’s eventual participation in government arrangements after the 2020 political realignment—eroded PAS’s trust. By 2022, Muafakat Nasional was effectively defunct, despite attempts to keep it symbolically alive.

PAS then entered its most recent and arguably most strategically significant arrangement: PN, alongside another Umno splinter party, Bersatu. Formed in the aftermath of the 2020 political crisis, PN quickly transitioned from an emergency governing coalition into a formal political bloc.

PAS also emerged as one of its strongest performers in the 15th General Election, strengthening its parliamentary presence and influence within several state administrations.

However, PAS and Bersatu have been at odds for quite some time now particularly over leadership hierarchy, seat negotiations, and long-term direction of the coalition.

Those tensions culminated in a decisive break on Monday night, when PAS officially moved to end its formal political relationship with Bersatu.

While the immediate details of the split continue to unfold, the move is consistent with PAS’s historical pattern: entering coalitions to maximise political leverage, but exiting when strategic or ideological ceilings are reached. Each departure has reshaped the opposition ecosystem, often triggering realignments in Malaysian politics.

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