Malaysia's Unity Government: How PH and BN Became Partners

One of the most striking features of Malaysian politics today is that two coalitions which spent decades as bitter rivals — Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional — now govern the country together. For anyone following the 2026 Johor election, understanding this unity government is essential.

The arrangement was born out of the November 2022 general election, GE15, which produced no clear winner. Pakatan Harapan won the most seats but fell short of a majority, while Barisan Nasional and Perikatan Nasional held significant blocs. After days of uncertainty, and with the intervention of the Malaysian monarchy, a unity government was formed with Pakatan Harapan chairman Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister, supported by Barisan Nasional and several other coalitions including Sarawak's GPS and Sabah's GRS.

This was a remarkable reversal. UMNO, the lead party in BN, had been Pakatan Harapan's principal opponent for years, and the two had traded power and accusations across multiple elections. Necessity, and the arithmetic of a hung parliament, brought them together. BN's Ahmad Zahid Hamidi became deputy prime minister, cementing the partnership at the top of government.

The unity government has provided Malaysia with a period of relative political stability after years of turbulence that saw multiple changes of prime minister. It has pursued the Madani reform agenda, fiscal consolidation and subsidy rationalisation, governing as a broad coalition spanning much of the political spectrum.

But there is an important caveat for the Johor election. While PH and BN are partners at the federal level, they are not running as a joint ticket in the Johor state contest. The caretaker Menteri Besar has publicly distinguished state politics from federal cooperation, and PH fielded its own 56 candidates against BN. So in Johor, the national partners are state-level competitors.

That tension — allies in Putrajaya, rivals in Johor Bahru — is one of the most fascinating dynamics of the 2026 election, and a reminder that Malaysian politics rarely fits a simple script.