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Ushar Daniele

Malaysian 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.
Islam is the country’s largest religion, with over 63 per cent of Malaysia’s population, or 21.8 million of the current 34.4 million population, being Muslims.
The commission’s findings were submitted to the king in August 2022 but remained unreleased until they were declassified on Wednesday, putting the issue back in the political spotlight just days before the Negeri Sembilan polls.

Although the report did not directly implicate politicians, it raises questions over whether its release could sway the Malay-Muslim electorate.
Political analyst Azmi Hassan said the timing of the report’s release appeared “very fishy”, coming just days before the election, but questioned the furore surrounding it because the report did not find wrongdoing by politicians or members of Tabung Haji’s board and instead attributed mistakes to senior management staff.
“I don’t see whether Pakatan Harapan can gain any advantage by releasing the Tabung Haji RCI report, except that it gives a positive view of the Umno government at that particular time,” said Azmi, a senior fellow at the Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research.
Prominent Umno leaders like former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who approved the inquiry in the first place, were also among those who called for the release of the findings.
He said the report’s conclusions on issues such as high dividend payouts and haj subsidies were not new and would likely not be viewed negatively by Muslim voters, suggesting that the findings could instead reinforce positive perceptions of the previous Umno administration.
Despite this, Anwar used the report to reinforce his anti-corruption message on the campaign trail, calling for investigations into its findings during a rally in Nilai, a city in Negeri Sembilan, on Wednesday.
“I do not want to interfere. Let them investigate. Do not wait,” he said.

The political rivalry between PH and Umno has often been shaped by race-based narratives, particularly attacks targeting PH’s Chinese-majority component party, the Democratic Action Party (DAP). But Anwar argued that the Tabung Haji findings had nothing to do with race.
“People say this country is ruined by the Chinese, everything is Chinese. The Chinese are DAP Chinese,” he said. “This is Tabung Haji. This is a Malay issue, this is a Malay problem. It has nothing to do with the Chinese.”
Since losing power in 2018, the BN has seen some of its leaders, predominantly those from Umno, embroiled in a string of corruption scandals.
Investigations swept up former prime ministers, chief ministers and heads of government-linked organisations, with outcomes ranging from convictions and acquittals to withdrawal of charges.
The most prominent was former prime minister Najib Razak’s conviction for corruption charges over the sovereign wealth fund 1MDB scandal. Other cases saw Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, former Negeri Sembilan chief minister Mohd Isa Abdul Samad and former Tabung Haji chairman Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim facing accusations of financial wrongdoings.
Abdul Azeez was given a full acquittal over three corruption and six money-laundering charges in December 2022.
Other analysts, however, said the release of the report, a long-delayed governance exercise, so close to the state election was clearly influenced by political timing and could resonate more strongly in the run-up to the next general election.


Wong Chin Huat, a political scientist at Sunway University, said the issue had shifted beyond questions of federal or state governance to “a normative choice between Malay unity and corruption”.
“Some voters may tolerate their predators from within for communal unity,” Wong said. “But it’s at least out in the public now. This may be too late for Negeri Sembilan, but expect it to grow in media attention in the 16th general election.”
Malaysia’s next general election is slated to be held on or before February 2028.
Ahmad Mohsein Azman, a senior analyst at BowerGroupAsia, said the timing of the report might not be intended to serve as an issue for debate for the Negeri Sembilan state election but rather as a broader move to push narratives in anticipation of the next general election.
“Pakatan Harapan’s intent to gain political mileage from the RCI’s release would only act as smoke and mirrors to plaster over faults in the current administration,” Ahmad Mohsein said.
He said the impact on voter perception ahead of the polls this weekend was slim, so long as the fundamentals of the pilgrimage management remain sound.
“Ensuring the continuity of Tabung Haji’s operations takes precedence over conducting a witch hunt to identify and penalise individuals responsible for the mismanagement and governance lapses.”


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Malaysia’s Anwar seizes on haj fund report ahead of Negeri Sembilan election

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks at a forum in Tokyo in June. Photo: EPA

Muslim pilgrims prostrate as they offer evening prayers around the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site, in Mecca during the annual haj pilgrimage in May. Photo: AP

Voters waiting in line to cast their vote in Muar, Johor, on July 11. Photo: Handout

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An aerial view of Port Dickson in Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan state. Just shy of 890,000 voters are registered to cast their ballots in the state election on Saturday. Photo: Shutterstock

A young couple look out at the skyline of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 21. Photo: EPA

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Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks during a press conference  at the federal government office in Putrajaya on July 9. Photo: AFP

Mohamad Hasan attends the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Retreat in Cebu City on January 29. Photo: AFP

Barisan Nasional leaders cheer at the command centre in Johor Bahru as unofficial results show the coalition leading in Johor’s state election on July 11. Photo: Iman Muttaqin Yusof

Can Malaysia’s PAS deliver the votes in Negeri Sembilan despite Johor wipeout?

Supporters of PAS, Malaysia’s largest Islamist party, in 2018. Photo: AFP

Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan says BN will enter the Negeri Sembilan state election with an “understanding with friends”. Photo: AFP

Barisan Nasional leaders cheer at the coalition’s command centre in Johor Bahru during the state election on July 11. Photo: Iman Muttaqin Yusof

PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang (centre) waves during the general election in Marang, Malaysia’s Terengganu state, in 2022. Photo: Malaysia’s Department of Information / AFP

A PAS supporter. The party has claimed it helped deliver a landslide victory to Barisan Nasional in the recent Johor state election. Photo: AFP

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The prime minister’s reiteration of his anti-corruption message is seen as a move to put Umno on the back foot


The prime minister’s reiteration of his anti-corruption message is seen as a move to put Umno on the back foot.


Malaysia’s Anwar seizes on haj fund report ahead of Negeri Sembilan election

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The prime minister’s reiteration of his anti-corruption message is seen as a move to put Umno on the back foot

The prime minister’s reiteration of his anti-corruption message is seen as a move to put Umno on the back foot