Azalina: UMNO Remains Committed to Unity Government, but Cooperation Does Not Mean Unconditional Agreement

KUALA LUMPUR November 13, 2026 — UMNO remains committed to the Malaysia Unity Government Cooperation Agreement, to government stability and to the Federal Constitution, but cooperation does not mean unconditional agreement, the party’s information chief, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, said on Friday.

Azalina, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), issued a 14-point media statement on her official X account in response to comments by Democratic Action Party (DAP) national chairman Gobind Singh Deo. According to the statement, Gobind had called on UMNO president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to resign if he did not support Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

That call, the statement said, “is regrettable and does little to strengthen the spirit of cooperation within the Unity Government.” Differences among coalition partners should be resolved through dialogue, Azalina said, not public pressure or demands for resignation, and constitutional powers under Article 42 of the Federal Constitution must be respected.

The Coalition Agreement

She said the Unity Government was formed after the 15th General Election following a royal decree of the then Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and through negotiations among the participating coalitions, which on December 16, 2022 signed the Cooperation Agreement of the Malaysia Unity Government.

Under Clause 4, the parties undertook to support the Prime Minister on confidence motions, supply bills and related procedural motions. UMNO honoured those commitments, Azalina said, but they should not be read as requiring every partner to agree unconditionally with every position taken by the Prime Minister or other political leaders.

The agreement is not merely about power-sharing, she said. Paragraph C of the Recital also commits the signatories to uphold the Federal Constitution, including the constitutional position of Islam, the Malays and Bumiputera, and the institution of the Malay Rulers. Public ultimata to the president of a coalition partner were “neither constructive nor consistent with the spirit of the Coalition Agreement.”

Zahid, as UMNO president and Barisan Nasional chairman, had a duty to protect the party’s interests, principles and political mandate, and that duty must be respected, the statement said.

Article 42 and the pardon

On the pardon involving Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, public knowledge since early 2024, Azalina said the power of pardon is a constitutional power vested in the relevant authority, and should not be portrayed as a unilateral political decision by any party, including UMNO. UMNO, she said, would defend references in the Coalition Agreement to the prerogative of mercy under Article 42.

In light of DAP’s apparent dissatisfaction with the recent development on Najib’s conditional pardon, the statement set out four options. The first was mediation under Clause 5(c), through a Consultative Council of the participating coalitions. Azalina said it was “curious” that this had not been invoked earlier, as the pardon had been public knowledge since January 2024.

The second, terminating the agreement, is not provided for, as it is meant to last until the end of the 15th Parliament, so the “obvious conclusion” would be that Parliament’s dissolution. The third was for DAP to remain calm; the statement said DAP had also benefited from the royal prerogative of mercy in 2018 and the 2022 royal decree that facilitated the Unity Government. The fourth, a review of Paragraph C of the Recital, would bring “unanticipated consequences to the continuity of the Unity Government,” she said.

State and federal cooperation

Azalina also called “curious” a DAP Central Executive Committee meeting on September 19, 2026, which decided that the party’s secretary-general should resign as transport minister after the conditional pardon. She said the move was taken unilaterally, without prior consultation, and had caused political instability among coalition partners.

Nothing in the Coalition Agreement prohibits state-level cooperation with other parties, she said, citing the 17th Sabah state election in November 2025 and the 13th Sarawak state election in December 2026. Federal cooperation, she added, must be distinguished from arrangements in Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka or other states.

UMNO would stay in the Unity Government in the nation’s interest, honour its commitments, respect the Prime Minister’s leadership and uphold the Federal Constitution, she said.

“We have made our position clear. The next move is yours.”

Source: https://x.com/AzalinaOthmanS/status/2121113799386353671

Credit : Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said’s X