The prime minister’s reiteration of his anti-corruption message is seen as a move to put Umno on the back foot
4-MIN READ4-MIN ListenUshar DanielePublished: 5:35pm, 30 Jul 2026Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has seized on the release of a long-delayed inquiry into the country’s Islamic pilgrimage fund to revive his anti-corruption message just days before the state of Negeri Sembilan holds an election.The move is seen as a calculated bid by Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition to turn a governance issue against state rival Umno, although observers are divided on whether it would be damaging enough to hurt Malaysia’s oldest Malay nationalist party.Anwar’s latest salvo further illustrates the fragility of uneasy political alliances in the country, where parties lock horns in state polls but govern together at the federal level. Umno has been a dominant force in government for more than six decades until 2018, when it lost the general election, and is now part of the federal unity government led by PH.
Saturday’s Negeri Sembilan election follows PH’s drubbing earlier this month in the Johor election by the Barisan Nasional coalition, which is led by its founding party Umno.
In 2021, the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) was established to examine the management and operations of Tabung Haji, the state-run haj pilgrims fund board, from 2014 to 2020 after independent reviews flagged governance concerns.
Tabung Haji was established in 1963 to help Muslims save and invest for the haj pilgrimage to Mecca. It is one of the country’s largest Islamic financial institutions, playing a central role in organising Malaysia’s annual haj pilgrimage.
