Barisan Nasional

Barisan Nasional is the direct successor to the three-party Alliance coalition formed of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC). It was founded in the aftermath of the 1969 general election and the 13 May riots. The Alliance Party lost ground in the 1969 election to the opposition parties, in particular the two newly formed parties Democratic Action Party and Gerakan, and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). Although the Alliance won a majority of seats, it gained less than half the popular vote, and the resulting tension between different communities led to the May 13 riots and the declaration of a state of emergency.[7] After the Malaysian Parliament reconvened in 1971, negotiations began with former opposition parties such as Gerakan and People's Progressive Party (myPPP), both of which joined the Alliance in 1972, quickly followed by Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).

In 1973, the Alliance Party was replaced by Barisan Nasional.[1][8] The Barisan Nasional, which included regional parties from Sabah and Sarawak (Sabah Alliance Party, Sarawak United Peoples' Party (SUPP), Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB)), registered in June 1974 as a coalition of nine parties.[8] It contested the 1974 general election as a grand coalition under the leadership of the prime minister Tun Abdul Razak, which it won with considerable success.[9]

In 1977, PAS was expelled from Barisan Nasional following a revolt within the Kelantan state legislature against a chief minister appointed by the federal government.[1] Barisan Nasional nevertheless won the 1978 general election convincingly, and it continued to dominate Malaysian politics in the 1980s and 1990s despite some losses in state elections, such as the loss of Kelantan to PAS, and Sabah to United Sabah Party (PBS) which later joined Barisan Nasional.

By 2003, Barisan Nasional had grown to a coalition formed of more than a dozen communal parties. It performed particularly well in the 2004 general election, winning 198 out of 219 seats.

Although Barisan Nasional never achieved more than 67% of the popular vote in elections from 1974 to 2008, it maintained consecutive two-thirds majority of seats in this period in the Dewan Rakyat until the 2008 election, benefitting from Malaysia's first-past-the-post voting system.[10]

High-ranking BN party officials holding copies of the party manifesto at a pre-election rally in 2013. In the front row, from left, are Chua Soi Lek (MCA), Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak and Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor (UMNO), and Abdul Taib Mahmud (PBB).

In the 2008 general election, Barisan Nasional lost more than one-third of the parliamentary seats to Pakatan Rakyat, a loose alliance of opposition parties. This marked Barisan's first failure to secure a two-thirds supermajority in Parliament since 1969. Five state governments, namely Selangor, Kelantan, Penang, Perak and Kedah fell to Pakatan Rakyat. Perak however was later returned via court ruling following a constitutional crisis. Since 2008, the coalition has seen its non-Malay component parties greatly diminished in the peninsula.[11]

The losses continued in the 2013 general election, and it recorded its worst election result at the time. BN regained Kedah, but lost several more seats in Parliament along with the popular vote to Pakatan. Despite winning only 47% of the popular vote, it managed to gain 60% of the 222 parliamentary seats, thereby retaining control of the parliament.[12]

And finally, during the 2018 general election, Barisan Nasional lost control of the parliament to Pakatan Harapan, winning a total of only 79 parliamentary seats. The crushing defeat ended their 61-year rule of the country, taken together with its predecessor (Alliance), and this paved the way for the first change of government in Malaysian history. The coalition won only 34% of the popular vote, despite redrawing the electoral boundaries in their favour. In addition to their failure in regaining the Penang, Selangor and Kelantan state governments, six state governments, namely Johor, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Kedah and Sabah fell to Pakatan Harapan and WARISAN (Sabah). The Terengganu state government also fell but to the Gagasan Sejahtera (GS). Barisan Nasional was only in power in three states; namely Perlis, Pahang and Sarawak.

Many of BN's component parties left the coalition following its humiliating defeat at the 2018 general election, reducing its number to only the original three of UMNO, MCA and MIC compared to 13 before the election. These parties either aligned themselves with the new Pakatan Harapan federal government, formed a new state-based pact or remained independent. They include four Sabah-based parties (UPKO, PBS, PBRS and LDP),[13][14][15][16] four Sarawak-based parties (PBB, SUPP, PRS and PDP, which formed a new state-based pact GPS),[17][18] myPPP (under Kayveas faction)[19] and Gerakan.[20] MyPPP experienced a leadership dispute, with Maglin announced that the party remained within the coalition and Kayveas announced that the party had left the coalition, resulting in the dissolution of the party on 14 January 2019.

Among the remaining three component parties in Barisan National, UMNO's parliamentary seats have reduced from 54 to 37 since after 17 members of parliament left the party,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] while MCA's parliamentary seat maintains one. MIC's parliamentary seats have reduced from two to one after the Election Court nullified the results of the election for the Cameron Highlands federal constituency due to bribery,[29] but BN regained its seat from a direct member under the 2019 by-election.[30]

As a result of these developments, BN's parliamentary seats have reduced to 40, compared with 79 seats that BN has won in the general election.

MCA and MIC made a statement in March 2019 that they want to "move on" and find a new alliance following disputes with secretary-general, Nazri Abdul Aziz. Mohamad Hasan, the acting BN chairman, chaired a Supreme Council meeting in which all parties showed no consensus on dissolving the coalition.

In 2019, Barisan Nasional recovered some ground and won a number of by-elections, such as the 2019 Cameron Highlands by-election, 2019 Semenyih by-election, 2019 Rantau by-election, 2019 Tanjung Piai by-election and the 2020 Kimanis by-election, defeating Pakatan.

In September 2019, UMNO decided to form a pact with the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) called Muafakat Nasional. Its main purpose is to unite the Malay Muslim communities for electoral purposes.[31] There is however no formal agreement with the other parties of Barisan Nasional, although there are calls for Barisan Nasional to migrate to Muafakat Nasional.[32][33] Barisan Nasional continued to function as a coalition of four parties comprising UMNO, MCA, MIC and PBRS, but aligned themselves with Perikatan Nasional to form a new government in March 2020 after the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government.[34]

Barisan Nasional has 42 MPs in the House of Representatives, with 38 MPs (or 92.5%) of them from UMNO.

State	No.	Parliament Constituency	Member	Party
Perlis	P001	Padang Besar	Zahidi Zainul Abidin		UMNO
	P003	Arau	Dr. Shahidan Kassim		UMNO
Kedah	P007	Padang Terap	Mahdzir Khalid		UMNO
	P016	Baling	Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim		UMNO
Kelantan	P026	Ketereh	Annuar Musa		UMNO
	P029	Machang	Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub		UMNO
	P032	Gua Musang	Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah		UMNO
Terengganu	P033	Besut	Idris Jusoh		UMNO
Penang	P041	Kepala Batas	Reezal Merican Naina Merican		UMNO
Perak	P054	Gerik	Hasbullah Osman		UMNO
	P055	Lenggong	Shamsul Anuar Nasarah		UMNO
	P061	Padang Rengas	Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz		UMNO
	P067	Kuala Kangsar	Mastura Mohd. Yazid		UMNO
	P069	Parit	Mohd. Nizar Zakaria		UMNO
	P072	Tapah	Saravanan Murugan		MIC
	P073	Pasir Salak	Tajuddin Abdul Rahman		UMNO
	P075	Bagan Datuk	Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi		UMNO
Pahang	P078	Cameron Highlands	Ramli Mohd Nor		UMNO
	P079	Lipis	Abdul Rahman Mohamad		UMNO
	P081	Jerantut	Ahmad Nazlan Idris		UMNO
	P084	Paya Besar	Mohd. Shahar Abdullah		UMNO
	P085	Pekan	Mohd. Najib Abdul Razak		UMNO
	P086	Maran	Ismail Abdul Muttalib		UMNO
	P087	Kuala Krau	Ismail Mohamed Said		UMNO
	P090	Bera	Ismail Sabri Yaakob		UMNO
	P091	Rompin	Hasan Arifin		UMNO
Selangor	P095	Tanjong Karang	Noh Omar		UMNO
Putrajaya	P125	Putrajaya	Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor		UMNO
Negeri Sembilan	P126	Jelebu	Jalaluddin Alias		UMNO
	P127	Jempol	Mohd. Salim Shariff		UMNO
	P131	Rembau	Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar		UMNO
Malacca	P139	Jasin	Ahmad Hamzah		UMNO
Johor	P147	Parit Sulong	Noraini Ahmad		UMNO
	P148	Ayer Hitam	Wee Ka Siong		MCA
	P153	Sembrong	Hishammuddin Hussein		UMNO
	P155	Tenggara	Adham Baba		UMNO
	P156	Kota Tinggi	Halimah Mohd. Sadique		UMNO
	P157	Pengerang	Azalina Othman Said		UMNO
	P164	Pontian	Ahmad Maslan		UMNO
	P165	Tanjung Piai	Wee Jeck Seng		MCA
Sabah	P176	Kimanis	Mohamad Alamin		UMNO
	P187	Kinabatangan	Bung Moktar Radin		UMNO
Total	Perlis (2), Kedah (2), Kelantan (3), Terengganu (1), Penang (1), Perak (8), Pahang (9), Selangor (1), F.T. Putrajaya (1), Negeri Sembilan (3), Malacca (1), Johor (8), Sabah (2)

• Chok, Suat Ling (4 October 2005). "MPs in the dock". New Straits Times, p. 1, 6.
• Chin, James. 2002. Malaysia: The Barisan National Supremacy. In David Newman & John Fuh-sheng Hsieh (eds), How Asia Votes, pp. 210–233. New York: Chatham House, Seven Bridges Press. ISBN 1-889119-41-5.
• Pillai, M.G.G. (3 November 2005). "National Front parties were not formed to fight for Malaysian independence". Malaysia Not Today