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TRUST between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his deputy, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, is at its lowest point since the Unity Government was formed, according to former UMNO Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin.
Khairy said the deterioration was closely linked to the increasingly divergent political directions taken by Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Zahid’s Barisan Nasional (BN), particularly after BN chose to cooperate with Perikatan Nasional (PN) in the Negeri Sembilan state election.
The move created a “massive rupture” in relations between BN and PH, Khairy said, with UMNO now increasingly signalling that its cooperation with PH is a temporary arrangement rather than a long-term political partnership.
At UMNO’s recent general assembly, Khairy said the message from delegates was that the party intended to remain in the Unity Government only until the next general election before competing against PH.
“Basically, the message is that we are only staying in the government until the general election, whenever that is, and after that, when we enter the general election, then we will fight each other.
“That’s basically the message from the UMNO general assembly,” he said in the latest episode of the Keluar Sekejap podcast.
Khairy said the sentiment reflected growing acceptance within UMNO that the party was “done” with the Unity Government and was ready to pursue a different political alignment after the next general election.
He said the possibility of UMNO working with PN, particularly PAS, had also become more apparent, although major questions remained over seat allocations and political arrangements in states controlled by PAS and BN.
The political shift has been accompanied by increasingly direct exchanges between Anwar and Zahid.
At the UMNO general assembly, Zahid called for the next general election to be held immediately and took apparent swipes at Anwar, including referring to him as “guru” and saying UMNO could do better than the PKR president.
Zahid has nevertheless denied that there is a personal or official rift with Anwar, saying BN remains committed to political stability and to staying in the Unity Government until the end of the current parliamentary term.
Anwar has likewise rejected Khairy’s assessment, describing it as a personal view and saying his relationship with Zahid remains good.
The tensions have also surfaced over government administration. Zahid publicly urged the Finance Ministry to speed up the disbursement of funds to contractors who had completed government projects, while the Finance Ministry is under Anwar’s control.
For Khairy, however, the bigger issue is political rather than administrative: UMNO is increasingly positioning itself to contest GE16 against PH while simultaneously exploring cooperation with parties that sit outside the Unity Government.
“Many things have yet to be decided, but what is clear is that we are ‘done’ with PH, we are ‘done’ with Anwar, and we are prepared to contest with possible cooperation with PN and PAS, and are ready to take over the government,” he said.
Khairy’s assessment contrasts with the public positions of both Anwar and Zahid, who have continued to describe their working relationship and the Unity Government as intact. The competing statements underline the gap between the formal commitment to maintain the coalition for the current parliamentary term and the parties’ preparations for the next general election. - September 19, 2026
