KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s next general election (GE16) could be “decisive” for the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) to reclaim the mandate to lead the country, said party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as he called for the polls to be held immediately.
Speaking to thousands of party faithful at UMNO’s 2026 general assembly on Friday (Sep 11), Zahid also took apparent swipes at Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and hinted at new political understandings with other partners.
UMNO and Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan are partners who have pledged to remain with the unity government until the end of the current parliamentary term. GE16 is due by February 2028.
But ties have been fraying, with both sides contesting against each other in recent state elections and UMNO emerging victorious on the back of its collaboration with the national opposition coalition Perikatan Nasional (PN) to unite the Malay vote.
Zahid did not refer to Anwar by name on Friday, but said UMNO could do much better than the “guru” (teacher).
Previously, Zahid was often regarded as the “murid” (student) while Anwar was the teacher.
Zahid took aim at what he called the government’s policy indecision, singling out taxation as a primary pain point.
He wanted the government to reintroduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system that it scrapped in 2018 – amid an outcry over rising living costs – before replacing it with a narrower sales and services tax (SST).
Anwar had last month said that the government was considering reforming its consumption tax regime to make it more progressive and efficient, including potentially reintroducing aspects of the GST, calling it a hybrid taxation system.
“There is no such thing as a hybrid system, no country does a hybrid of GST plus SST, SST, SST … hey guru, listen to what the people are saying,” said Zahid to cheers from the crowd.
He also cited the government withdrawing and later reinstating the subsidised fuel quota of 300l under the Budi95 programme. “Who did this? Guru. Enough, guru … We can do better than what the guru has done,” said Zahid, who is deputy prime minister.