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By Mihar Dias December 2025
If politics were a family dinner, Malaysia’s current ruling coalition would be the kind where everyone insists they are “getting along fine” while kicking each other under the table.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision to keep Najib Razak in Kajang Prison should, in theory, have been a straightforward moment: the courts ruled, the law stood, and the country moved on.
Instead, it became yet another episode in the long-running soap opera titled UMNO and DAP: Why Are We Still Living Together?
DAP’s Yeo Bee Yin called it “another reason to celebrate the end of the year.” WOB
PKR’s Wong Chen declared, “Justice lives!” WOB
These are hardly revolutionary sentiments for politicians whose parties spent years telling voters that Najib symbolised everything rotten about kleptocracy. One might even say they were simply staying in character.
UMNO, however, reacted as if someone had insulted the family patriarch at the dinner table. UMNO Youth chief Akmal Saleh demanded dignity. Wanita UMNO exco Nurulhidayah Ahmad Zahid found it “tiring to work with DAP’s trash.”https://newswav.com/A2512_tgWVWS?s=A_IMD0LiS&language=en
Others warned darkly about Malay unity rising against tyranny.https://newswav.com/A2512_tgWVWS?s=A_IMD0LiS&language=en
All of which raises an obvious question: if this relationship is so exhausting, insulting and humiliating, why is UMNO still here?
This is the central hypocrisy of the so-called unity government. UMNO leaders scold DAP publicly, posture as aggrieved victims privately, yet cling to the coalition like a lifebuoy.
They thunder about withdrawing support, but never quite get around to doing it. It is political outrage with an expiry date that always seems to be “later”.
DAP, for its part, appears genuinely baffled that celebrating a court ruling against Najib could offend UMNO. To DAP supporters, Najib’s conviction is not a footnote; it is the moral foundation of their politics. Asking DAP leaders to mourn Najib’s failure to secure house arrest is like asking firefighters to apologise when a fire is put out.
UMNO wants it both ways. It wants to be in government, enjoy the perks of power, and still signal to its base that it has not “sold out” to DAP.
Hence the ritual insults. Call DAP names, accuse them of arrogance, warn of Malay backlash—then turn up for the next Cabinet meeting as usual.
The Najib case merely exposes this contradiction more starkly. UMNO insists on reverence for Najib and deference to the so-called Titah Adendum.
The courts, however, have ruled that the addendum does not comply with the Constitution. When DAP politicians cheer the ruling, UMNO hears not legal clarity but political betrayal.
But let us be honest: this tension was baked into the coalition from day one. UMNO and DAP are not ideological partners; they are political survivors sharing a lifeboat after an electoral shipwreck. They tolerate each other not out of trust, but out of necessity.
So every Najib-related headline becomes a stress test. Every court decision, a reminder of why this alliance feels unnatural. Every Facebook post, another excuse for UMNO to pretend it is still bravely resisting DAP—even while propping up a government that cannot exist without it.
The real question is not whether Yeo Bee Yin should have celebrated. It is whether UMNO truly believes it can remain in a coalition where the rule of law collides head-on with its emotional and political attachment to Najib Razak.
If UMNO cannot stomach DAP’s reaction to Najib’s imprisonment, it has an obvious option: walk away and become that “dignified opposition” it keeps talking about. Until then, the outrage rings hollow.
In the end, this is less about Najib in Kajang Prison and more about UMNO trapped in a coalition of its own contradictions—angry, offended, but unwilling to leave the room.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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