Pakatan Harapan
Malaysian political coalition
Pakatan Harapan (PH; stylised as HARAPAN; English: Alliance of Hope) is a Malaysian political coalition consisting of centrist and centre-left political parties which was formed in 2015 to succeed the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. It has led a grand coalition government since November 2022, having previously led a single-coalition government from May 2018 to February 2020.
It is currently the largest coalition in the Dewan Rakyat with 77 seats and is part of the state governments of 5 of 13 states in the country, comprising Penang, Selangor, Perak, Pahang, and Sabah.
The coalition consists of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), People's Justice Party (PKR) and Parti Amanah Negara (AMANAH).
The coalition deposed the Barisan Nasional coalition government during the 2018 Malaysian general election, ending its 60-year-long reign (counted together with its predecessor, Alliance) since independence. Pakatan Harapan fell from power as a result of the 2020 Malaysian political crisis, when its chairman and then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad resigned from office, and his Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) left the coalition along with 11 members of parliament from PKR.
After the 2022 Malaysian general election resulted in a hung parliament, Pakatan Harapan entered into coalition with Barisan Nasional (BN), Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), WARISAN, Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM), Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA), Social Democratic Harmony Party (KDM), and independents to form what is commonly referred to as a national unity government, with PH chairman Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister.
History
Formation
Pakatan Harapan is a direct successor to the three-party Pakatan Rakyat coalition that consisted of the People's Justice Party, the Democratic Action Party and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). Disagreements and conflict between PAS and DAP mainly regarding the implementation of sharia law resulted in the predecessor coalition's break-up in June 2015, and it was replaced by a new coalition in September 2015 formed by the remnants of Pakatan Rakyat and a new PAS splinter party, the National Trust Party.
On 12 November 2016, a United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) splinter party, the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU), founded and led by former Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, confirmed that the party was committed to joining Pakatan Harapan. It succeeded in forming an electoral pact with the coalition in December before finally becoming a member in March the next year.
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