Malaysia's Pejuang political party, founded by Mahathir, withdraws from Gerakan coalition

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) on Saturday (Jan 14) announced its withdrawal from the Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) coalition, to focus on strengthening the party.

Its president Mukhriz Mahathir said the decision was made after taking into account the views of delegates in the second general assembly of Pejuang on Saturday, following the party’s poor performance in the country’s 15th general election (GE15).

Pejuang, established by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, failed to win any contested parliamentary seats in the 2022 polls. 

However, Mukhriz said Pejuang’s stance was to remain open to holding any negotiations with the existing political coalitions in facing the state polls which will take place this year.

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“A special committee will be established by the party’s executive council to evaluate all available options ... for now, no negotiations have been held yet, only informal discussions.

“But soon, we will meet with the leaders of these existing coalitions to explore the possibility of forging cooperation,” he said.

On the strategy for the upcoming state elections, the former Jerlun Member of Parliament said Pejuang will highlight candidates who are already known and well-liked by the local community and will re-examine the states where the party will contest in.

Pejuang said in December that it had accepted Dr Mahathir’s decision to step down as chairman of the party after his election loss. 

The 97-year-old, who remains a member of Pejuang, failed to defend his Langkawi seat in Kedah during the general election in November. It was his first electoral defeat in 53 years.

He lost his deposit after finishing fourth in a five-cornered fight, which was won by Perikatan Nasional’s Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah.

The Gerakan Tanah Air coalition he led also failed to win a single seat.

Pejuang, which is part of the coalition, was established in August 2020 after the then-Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration collapsed due to infighting. 

In 2018, Mahathir, Muhyiddin Yassin and Anwar Ibrahim worked together to win the General Election under the PH umbrella. But the PH government lasted less than two years.

After his 2022 election defeat, Mahathir tweeted that he would focus on writing about the history and happenings in Malaysia, saying that many events in the country were unrecorded.