Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah (APU)
The PAS-Semangat 46 front that governed Kelantan from 1990, refused registration as a coalition by the Registrar of Societies, and ended when PAS severed all cooperation with Semangat 46 on 14 July 1996.
Who was in it
In it at the end: PAS, SEMANGAT 46, BERJASA, HAMIM.
Party membership of a coalition changes over time. The dates behind this are the same ones the Coalition River on the home page is drawn from.
The account
Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah was one half of an unusual arrangement. In the late 1980s UMNO split, and the losing faction under Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah left to form Semangat 46. To fight Barisan Nasional it needed partners, and the two largest available opposition parties — PAS and DAP — would not sit in the same coalition. So Semangat 46 built two, and stood in both:
- APU
- the Islamic front, with PAS, Berjasa and HAMIM
- Gagasan Rakyat
- the other, with DAP, Parti Rakyat Malaysia and, from late in the 1990 campaign, Parti Bersatu Sabah
APU was never a registered coalition. Its organisers applied, and the Registrar of Societies turned the application down. That is a real distinction rather than a technicality: a registered coalition is a political association in its own right, with a name and a symbol of its own on the ballot, while a refused application leaves only an agreement between separately registered parties, each contesting under its own logo.
Even so, in one state it worked completely. At the general election of 21 October 1990 APU won every parliamentary and every state seat in Kelantan — 13 and 39 — and PAS and Semangat 46 took the state government together. Nationally the picture was different: Barisan Nasional held 127 of 180 seats, the APU bloc took about 21.6 per cent of the vote for 15 seats, and outside Kelantan Semangat 46 won a single parliamentary seat.
Five years later the pattern repeated, more narrowly. At the 1995 election Barisan Nasional's majority grew to 162 of 192; PAS kept its seven seats and Semangat 46 dropped to six. APU still held Kelantan, with 12 of 14 parliamentary seats and 36 of 43 state seats, but Semangat 46 won nothing anywhere else. The first public sign of trouble came that August, when Tengku Razaleigh's own majority in Gua Musang nearly halved at a by-election and, as Bernama reported, PAS did almost nothing to help him.
The end came from Semangat 46's side. In February 1996 Tengku Razaleigh said he would consider returning to UMNO if invited; in April Mahathir Mohamad confirmed the two had met, and Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said that meant Semangat 46 was finished; in May Mahathir announced the return.
PAS's deputy president Abdul Hadi Awang called on Semangat 46 to leave APU and give up its Kelantan posts, and on 14 July 1996 PAS's central committee voted to cut all cooperation with it. The four Semangat 46 members of the Kelantan executive council lost their portfolios. Semangat 46 dissolved itself at a special assembly on 6 October 1996, and its members joined UMNO.
Nothing in the record describes APU itself being wound up. There was no registered body to wind up — which is, in the end, the clearest thing the front's history shows about what a refused registration leaves behind.
What the sources say
What it was
Semangat 46 entered an understanding with PAS, Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Semalaysia (Berjasa) and Parti Hizbul Muslimin Malaysia (HAMIM) through Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah, and separately with DAP, Parti Bersatu Sabah, Parti Rakyat Malaysia and the Indian Progressive Front through Gagasan Rakyat.
The Registrar of Societies rejected the application to register it as a coalition of political parties.
Semangat 46 was the only party in both APU and Gagasan Rakyat. Andreas Ufen describes the two as parallel pacts interlinked through Semangat 46, an arrangement he attributes to the programmatic differences between PAS and DAP, which would not sit in the same front.
A study of PAS members' responses to electoral cooperation, by Nur Ayuni Mohd Isa, Zaid Ahmad and Ahmad Tarmizi Talib, lists APU's members as PAS, Semangat 46, Berjasa, HAMIM and the Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (KIMMA), and dates the coalition's end to 1996.
PAS's own newspaper describes APU as having been founded by Berjasa, with HAMIM, Semangat 46 and KIMMA joining, and dates PAS's political understanding with it to 1988–1996.
The 1990 general election
At the general election of 21 October 1990, Barisan Nasional won 127 of the 180 Dewan Rakyat seats. The APU bloc took 21.6 per cent of the vote and 15 seats; the Gagasan Rakyat bloc took 21.1 per cent and 34 seats.
APU took every seat in Kelantan: all 39 state assembly seats and all 13 parliamentary seats. Outside Kelantan, Semangat 46 won only one parliamentary seat, plus two state seats in Terengganu and one each in Pahang and Johor.
PAS and Semangat 46 shared power in the Kelantan state government from 1990.
The 1995 general election
At the general election of 24–25 April 1995, Barisan Nasional won 162 of the enlarged 192 seats. PAS held its seven seats and Semangat 46 fell from eight to six.
APU held Kelantan, winning 12 of the state's 14 parliamentary seats and 36 of its 43 state seats. Semangat 46 candidates won nothing in any other state.
Strain between the two main partners was visible from August 1995, when Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's majority in the Gua Musang by-election fell to 4,746 votes from the 8,980 he had won there in April, with Bernama reporting that PAS played almost no part in helping him.
How it ended
10 February 1996
On 10 February 1996 Tengku Razaleigh said he would consider joining UMNO if invited by Mahathir Mohamad. On 26 April 1996 Mahathir confirmed the two had met; Kelantan Menteri Besar and PAS Mursyidul Am Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat responded that this meant Semangat 46 was finished. On 8 May 1996 Mahathir announced that Tengku Razaleigh would join UMNO.
10 May 1996
On 10 May 1996 PAS deputy president Abdul Hadi Awang called on Semangat 46 to leave APU and to give up its posts in the Kelantan state administration. On 14 July 1996 PAS's central committee decided to sever all forms of cooperation with Semangat 46, and Nik Abdul Aziz then stripped the four Semangat 46 members of the state executive council of their portfolios.
Where accounts differ
Whether APU dates from 1989 or 1990
Bernama's chronology places the understanding in 1989 and PAS's own paper gives 1988–1996; Ufen, and the MANU study, date the front to 1990. The membership dates recorded here use 1989 and are year-level only: no source found gives a month.
Who founded APU
PAS's own newspaper says Berjasa founded it and that PAS entered a political understanding with it; the MANU study describes PAS as having joined APU together with the other parties.
Whether KIMMA was a component
The Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress appears as an APU member in PAS's own paper and in the MANU study, but not in Bernama's 1996 chronology, which names only PAS, Berjasa and HAMIM as Semangat 46's APU partners at both the beginning and the end. No date for KIMMA's participation was established, so it is not recorded in the membership dates above.
Whether APU was ever formally dissolved
No source located describes an act dissolving APU. What the record shows is PAS severing cooperation on 14 July 1996 and Semangat 46 dissolving itself on 6 October 1996. Since the Registrar of Societies had refused to register APU, there was no registered entity to wind up.
Common questions
Which parties were in Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah?
PAS, Semangat 46, Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Semalaysia (Berjasa) and Parti Hizbul Muslimin Malaysia (HAMIM). Some accounts, including PAS's own newspaper and a Universiti Malaysia Sabah study, also list the Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (KIMMA), which does not appear in Bernama's chronology of the period.
Was APU a registered coalition?
No. The Registrar of Societies rejected the application to register it as a coalition of political parties, so it operated as an agreement between separately registered parties rather than as a political association of its own.
How could Semangat 46 be in two opposition coalitions at once?
PAS and DAP would not join the same front, so Semangat 46 built one with each: APU with PAS, Berjasa and HAMIM, and Gagasan Rakyat with DAP and others. Andreas Ufen describes the two as parallel pacts interlinked through Semangat 46, and attributes the arrangement to the programmatic differences between PAS and DAP.
What did APU actually win?
Kelantan. At the 1990 general election it took all 13 parliamentary seats and all 39 state seats there, and PAS and Semangat 46 governed the state together. In 1995 it held 12 of 14 parliamentary seats and 36 of 43 state seats in Kelantan. Nationally, Barisan Nasional won 127 of 180 seats in 1990 and 162 of 192 in 1995.
When and why did APU end?
PAS's central committee decided on 14 July 1996 to sever all forms of cooperation with Semangat 46, after Mahathir Mohamad announced in May that Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah would rejoin UMNO. Semangat 46 then dissolved itself at a special assembly on 6 October 1996 and its members joined UMNO.
Still open
- On what date did APU apply to the Registrar of Societies, and on what date was the application refused?
- When did KIMMA join APU, if it did, and on whose account?
- Was there any formal act ending APU, or did it simply cease to operate after 14 July 1996?