Perikatan Nasional is facing a moment it has long tried to deny. The question is no longer whether the coalition is weakening, but whether it is approaching its end.

Muhyiddin Yassin’s decision to step down as Perikatan Nasional chairman has triggered a chain reaction that exposes the coalition’s fragile core. On the same day of his announcement, PN secretary-general Azmin Ali resigned from his post, followed by Perak PN chief Ahmad Faizal Azumu, Johor PN chief Dr Sahruddin Jamal, Negeri Sembilan PN chief Hanifah Abu Baker and Sarawak PN chief Jaziri Alkaf Abdillah Suffian. This was not an orderly transition. It was a coordinated collapse of confidence.

PN was born out of the infamous Sheraton Move, an exercise in political survival rather than ideological clarity. It was stitched together hastily, driven by personal ambitions and mutual distrust of rivals rather than any shared national vision.

From the beginning, it relied heavily on Muhyiddin as the glue holding together parties with competing interests and incompatible agendas. With that glue now gone, the cracks are no longer cosmetic. They are structural.

The coalition has lost the very person who steered it through its formative years, turbulent as they were. What remains is a leadership vacuum with no obvious successor capable of commanding respect across the divide between Bersatu, PAS and the smaller component parties. Internal conflict is no longer whispered about. It is playing out in public view.

The Perlis political crisis is a clear warning sign. It reveals a growing tiff between PAS and Bersatu that goes beyond state-level disagreements. It reflects deeper mistrust over power sharing, control and direction. This is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a coalition pulling itself apart.

Bersatu itself is far from stable. The party is grappling with its own leadership crisis, with factions reportedly planning to topple Muhyiddin as party chief. A party consumed by internal manoeuvring cannot credibly anchor a national coalition.

PAS, on the other hand, may hold the largest number of seats within PN, but numbers alone do not make a leader of a plural coalition. Its political agenda remains rooted in extremism and rigid ideological positions that alienate non-Malay, non-Muslim voters. That makes PAS fundamentally incapable of leading a coalition that claims to represent a diverse Malaysia. Dominance without inclusivity is not leadership. It is isolation.

Leadership also demands visibility and performance. Yet PN leaders are frequently absent in Parliament. Absenteeism is not a trivial matter. The chairman of an opposition coalition must be seen asking questions, scrutinising government policy, articulating alternatives and holding power to account. Silence and absence signal irrelevance. When opposition leaders fail to show up, they surrender moral authority and public trust.

All of this raises an unavoidable question. Are we witnessing the demise of PN?

With no credible leaders emerging from within its ranks, a visible exodus of senior figures and a glaring absence of coherent policy proposals, PN appears to be running on fumes.

Opposition is not merely about rejecting the government of the day. It is about offering a believable alternative. PN has failed repeatedly to do so.

The future for Bersatu itself is uncertain. Political survival may push it towards seeking shelter in another coalition, perhaps swallowing its pride in exchange for relevance. Such a move would be an admission of failure for a party that once claimed to represent a new political order.

For smaller component parties like Urimai, MIPP and Gerakan, the outlook is even bleaker. Their influence is already marginal, and without a functioning coalition framework, they risk political extinction. Being passengers on a sinking ship does not delay the inevitable. It only ensures they go down with it.

In the end, PN is not collapsing because of external pressure. It is imploding under the weight of its own contradictions.

Formed out of desperation, sustained by convenience and now abandoned by key players, the coalition is slowly but surely sinking. The only question left is not whether PN will survive, but how long it will take before its end becomes undeniable.

By: Justin Lim Hwang Ho
Political observer, writer, activist