‘Alliance of Hope’: Malaysia’s opposition forms united bloc against scandal-hit Najib

The new group replaces the Pakatan Rakyat, or People’s Pact, a three-party coalition formed in 2008 that was the most successful opposition movement in multi-racial Malaysia’s history.

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Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah Ismail, will head the new alliance, called Pakatan Harapan, or the Alliance of Hope. Photo: EPA

Published: 7:45pm, 22 Sep 2015

Three Malaysian opposition parties announced an alliance on Tuesday, forming a united front against the scandal-hit government of Prime Minister Najib Razak.

While a political storm has raged around Najib for months over alleged corruption and mismanagement at indebted state-fund 1Malaysia Development, opposition parties have been in disarray.

Amid mounting calls for Najib to quit, rival parties have come together once again, this time without the main Islamist party whose push for the introduction of an Islamic penal code had caused the previous alliance to break apart in June.

The People’s Justice Party, led by jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, and the largely ethnic Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP) has this time joined hands with the small, newly-formed Parti Amanah Negara, whose members had broken away from the main Islamist opposition party.

The next elections are due by early 2018, with Najib’s ruling coalition seeking to extend its nearly six-decade reign. Photo: Reuters

Led by Anwar, the previous alliance, including the main Islamist party, Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), inflicted the worst ever result on Najib’s ruling coalition in the 2013 election.