Parti Bangsa Malaysia (English: Malaysian Nation Party, abbreviated PBM), is a registered centre-right political party in Malaysia. The party was founded as the Sarawak Workers Party before being handed over in November 2021.[2] The party is currently represented by one Member of Parliament (MP) after the 15th general election (GE15).
History
At the beginning, Sarawak Workers Party (Malay: Parti Pekerja Sarawak, abbreviated SWP) was a political party based in Sarawak, Malaysia formed in 2012 as a splinter party of Sarawak Peoples' Party (PRS) by some former PRS members headed by dissident leader Sng Chee Hua, who took over the Sabah People's Front (SPF) and rebranded into the new SWP which was Barisan Nasional (BN)-friendly.[3][4] The senior Sng retired and handed-over the SWP president position to his son, Larry Sng Wei Shien in 2013.[5]
Larry Sng later resigned from SWP in April 2016 after failure to be accepted into state BN coalition.[6] During his absence, the party under Engga Unchat's leadership formed Gabungan Anak Sarawak (GASAK) with Sarawak People's Aspiration Party (ASPIRASI) and New Sarawak Native People's Party (PBDSB).[7]
Larry Sng, after five-years active around as an Independent and People's Justice Party (PKR), rejoined the SWP party in November 2021 as deputy president and revealed the change of the party name to Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) which Registrar of Societies has earlier approved on 14 October 2021.[8][9] Mohd. Sukri Yusri meanwhile will be temporary president of the new party.[10] All members of previous SWP central leadership resigned and the party is to release its leadership lineup in the process due.[11]
On 8 January 2022, Larry Sng, as the newly appointed president of PBM,[12] did not deny the possibility of joining the BN coalition in anticipation for the 15th general election.[13] PBM had declared its support for Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) during the 2021 Sarawak state election.[14] As the GASAK's policy not cooperating with Peninsular-based or Malaysia-wide parties, the Sarawak opposition coalition which initially consists of ASPIRASI, PBDSB and SWP is not expected to continue any alliance with the new PBM.[15] Meanwhile Nor Hizwan Ahmad, the Penggerak Komuniti Negara NGO president and also among the PKR members who turned to Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) in the 2020 Sheraton Move, had claimed that its 53,109 NGO members would join the new party.[16]
SWP logo (2012-2021)Interim Logo (2021)
Leadership crisis and the 15th general election (2022–2023)
On 26 May 2022, Zuraida Kamaruddin resigned from BERSATU and applied to join PBM. Zuraida's membership was approved on 9 June and she was also appointed as the party's president-designate. The decision of the appointment was approved by the party's political bureau and the supreme council.[17][18] Inaugural PBM president Larry Sng issued a statement on 2 October that he is still the party president and he has not resigned from the position due to the upcoming 15th general election (GE15).[19]
On 8 October, PBM announced the appointment of Zuraida as the new party president after a supreme council meeting held on 7 October.[20] Sng was quoted as saying he accepts the supreme council's decision and will not challenge the matter.[21] However, on 26 October, Sng released a statement saying he is still the legitimate party president according to the Registrar of Societies (RoS) records (later confirmed by the RoS director-general on 30 October) and suspended secretary-general Nor Hizwan Ahmad and information chief Zakaria Abdul Hamid (who are reportedly Zuraida's allies) for holding the supreme council meeting to appoint Zuraida as party president without his knowledge and consent.[22][23][24][25] Nor Hizwan dismissed the suspension, claiming that only Zuraida, as the current party president, can suspend him and Zakaria from the party.[26] On 29 October, Sng announced the suspension of Zuraida and 12 supreme council members,[a][27] which was also dismissed by deputy president and supreme council member Haniza Talha.[28] On 2 November, PBM released a statement that Sng is recognised as the rightful party president and will sign the party's candidate appointment letters to contest in GE15 with Zuraida reverting to her previous position of president-designate.[29][30]
PBM contested for five parliamentary seats (Hulu Selangor, Kapar, Labuan, Ampang and Julau) and two state assembly seats (Tronoh and Bugaya) in GE15. PBM lost all but one seats contested, with Sng retaining the Julau parliamentary seat. Most notably, Zuraida lost the Ampang parliamentary seat to PKR's Rodziah Ismail and managed to garner only 4,589 votes. Zuraida had previously won the Ampang parliamentary seat in the last three general elections under PKR.[31][32] PBM joined the coalition government under the leadership of Anwar Ibrahim but was not given a cabinet position.[33]
On 24 December, Sng was reported to have sent show-cause letters to the 13 suspended party members after they have failed to attend a supreme council meeting.[34] After failing to respond to the 26 December deadline,[35] the party's disciplinary committee sacked Zuraida and 10 of the 13 suspended members from the party.[36] On 11 April 2023, Zuraida was reported to have filed a judicial review leave application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in a bid to be officially recognised as party president.[37][38] On 6 June, the High Court rejected Zuraida's leave with Justice Amarjeet saying that Section 18C of the Societies Act 1966 prevents the court to intervene, or hear any issues or disputes on internal party matters.[39][40]
Post GE15 (2023–)
On 14 February 2023, Sng announced a new supreme council line-up for the party, including former Sri AmanMPMasir Kujat as the new party secretary general.[41][42]
Sng was appointed as the chairman of the Malaysian Timber Industry Board on 5 May.[43]
On 14 June 2023, Sng announced that PBM will not contest in any of the 6 states involved in 2023 Malaysian state elections, and supporting candidates of the PH-BN led 'Unity Government'.[44] The decision means that its 2 remaining MLA in Selangor will not defend their seats and left PBM with no representation in any of the state assemblies.
^Daroyah Alwi, Haniza Mohamad Talha, Rahimah Majid, Sathiskumar Govindaraju, Muhammad Saiful Bahari Sahari, Na’im Brundage, Abdul Aziz Abdul Kadir, Zakaria Abdul Rahim, Muniraa Abu Bakar, Chua Lian Chye, Roger Tan and Albakri Salim
