It’s hard to understand why the leaders of political parties do not stand for party elections. The major Malay political parties in Peninsular Malaysia — except PAS — have declared a no-contest for their top posts.

The leaders of the other two main Malay parties, Bersatu and Umno, have decided that there would be no contest for the party president’s post. In Bersatu, the deputy president’s post, currently held by Hamzah Zainuddin, was also not contested. Muhyiddin Yassin is the Bersatu president.

During its party elections in 2023, Umno passed a resolution for its top two posts to go uncontested, giving party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his deputy Mohamad Hassan to lead the party for another term.

PAS also held its party elections in 2023 and while there was no ruling for a no-contest for the top two posts, there was only one nominee for each position so party president Hadi Awang and deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man won their positions unopposed. PAS will be holding its elections in September this year and so far there is no ruling for a no-contest for the top two positions.

Bersatu is now in a spot because if PAS elects top leaders or has incumbent leaders who win unopposed, PAS will be in a stronger position to seek a leadership role in their coalition, Perikatan Nasional (PN), which, at the moment, Bersatu leads under an understanding between both parties even though it is a smaller party with fewer MPs than PAS.

An unelected Bersatu president now further strains this relationship between the two parties. Since PAS has more MPs than Bersatu and with elected top leaders, it gets more leverage to lead PN, which will make it even more difficult for moderate Malays and non-Muslims to vote for PN in the next general elections.

How Bersatu will resolve this sticky issue is left to be seen. If, on the other hand, its president were elected, it would be a strong basis to test his support in a general election and it would give the party stronger grounds to helm the coalition. Bersatu still has time to call for a special assembly to elect its top leaders.

In a healthy democracy, the party president’s post must always be elected, especially if the party president is a potential prime minister, as is the case in Malaysia with Malay parties.

It is the democratic tradition to elect a party president before a general election. Why this tradition is not followed in Malaysia is, perhaps, due to a decision made during then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s time in the 1990s. It is likely that as president of the sole Malay-based party, Umno, and facing a split in votes, Mahathir opted for a no-contest for the top posts to keep the party united and not lose a general election (GE), which would have meant that the Malays had lost the political power to govern.

The situation now is, however, different. The Malays are split and represented by more than one party. That’s all the more reason why the presidents of these parties first need to prove their support in their own parties before testing it in a general election. As such, in the current political context, a no-contest for the top posts serves no purpose other than keeping unelected leaders with an overdose of self-importance in power and providing them with a shortcut to becoming a PM. No-contests thus are undemocratic.

So, it is extremely disappointing that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s party, PKR, which is not a Malay-based party but has strong support from urban Malays, and is supposedly a leading advocate of reform in the country, has declared that the party president’s post will be uncontested in its party elections next month.

Anwar is an appointed PM who passed a no-confidence vote in Parliament after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with other political parties to support him for a full term. His coalition, Pakatan Harapan (PH), backed by urban minorities, got the most votes but not enough to form a majority government in 2022, but he was nevertheless appointed to form a government by the king.

He has yet to seek the mandate of the people through a free vote. Logically speaking, if Anwar followed democratic practices, he would have seen in his party elections an opportunity to seek grassroots support and then the mandate of the majority in a general election. The fact that he has not so far just can’t be understood.

Malay-based party leaders need to seek the mandate to govern by democratic means and not use expediency to justify undemocratic means to achieve power. Defending their positions or standing for elections in their party is a good start.