SEPTEMBER 15 — Perikatan Nasional (PN) has not been deregistered.
The Registrar of Societies (RoS) has issued a show-cause notice and suspended its activities while giving the coalition an opportunity to respond to a complaint lodged by Bersatu.
PN has 30 days to rebut the allegations of inappropriaties.
Curiously even the Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi, the party president of Umno, has agreed to RoS did not act with any political agenda in mind.
But should deregistration eventually occur, the strategic consequences would extend well beyond PN itself.
Malaysia’s entire opposition landscape could be reordered.
First, deregistration would remove the institutional umbrella under which different opposition parties have coordinated themselves.
Whatever the disagreements between PAS, Bersatu and the smaller parties, PN provided a common political identity.
Second, the loss of the PN name and logo would create an immediate problem of electoral branding. During the present suspension, component parties have already been prevented from operating under the PN banner.
Third, seat negotiations would become substantially more complicated.
Instead of negotiating within a coalition framework, the respective parties would have to establish new bilateral or multilateral arrangements.
Fourth, this raises the possibility of more multi-cornered contests.
If PAS, Bersatu and other opposition parties cannot reach accommodations, candidates representing overlapping constituencies could compete against one another.
Fifth, deregistration would disrupt political machinery. Coalitions are not merely logos.
They coordinate candidates, campaign workers, communications, resources and polling-day operations. Reconstructing such machinery takes time.
Sixth, the question of leadership of the Malay opposition would become more pronounced. The political relationship between PAS and Bersatu has already deteriorated.
Bersatu has explored alternative electoral alliances, while the dispute that led to the present RoS intervention itself originated from Bersatu’s complaint concerning PN.
Seventh, smaller parties would face difficult strategic choices. Without PN, they would have to determine whether to align with PAS, Bersatu, another political formation or proceed independently.
Eighth, Malaysia’s coalition system itself would become less predictable. Since 2020,
PN has become one of the country’s recognisable national political formations. Removing it would alter the architecture of political competition.
Ninth, opposition fragmentation could affect constituency-level competition.
This should not be interpreted as automatically benefiting any particular party or coalition.
Electoral effects would depend on subsequent alliances, candidate selection and local voting patterns.
Finally, deregistration could generate prolonged legal and political contestation.
PN has already disputed the basis of the RoS action and indicated that it is pursuing legal avenues.
The larger issue, therefore, is not simply whether the letters “PN” disappear from Malaysian politics.
PAS would remain PAS.
Bersatu would remain Bersatu. Their supporters would not simply vanish.
But the institutional bridge connecting these forces could disappear.
That would compel Malaysia’s opposition parties to reconstruct their relationships at precisely the moment when their internal relationships are already under considerable strain.
A deregistered PN, therefore, would not necessarily mean the disappearance of the opposition.
It could mean something strategically more consequential: the beginning of a major realignment of Malaysia’s opposition politics.
* Phar Kim Beng is professor of Asean Studies and director at the Institute of International and Asean Studies, International Islamic University Malaysia.
** This is the personal opinion of the writers or publication and does not necessarily represent the views ofMalay Mail.
