Malaysian Muslims Brotherhood… Play on all ropes to reach power

Malaysia is witnessing increasing activity by the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to capitalize on developments in the political arena following the general elections held last May, which resulted in the loss of the Parisian alliance for the opposition alliance led by Mahathir Mohamad.

MB took part in the general elections within the Mahathir Alliance in an election battle against Najib Abdul Razzaq, the former prime minister and leader of the Parish Alliance.

MB and Amana Party won 29 seats out of 113 seats, won by the opposition coalition led by «Mahathir» in parliament.

The Malaysian Islamic Party was founded by the “Burhan al-Din al-Halabi” in 1956.

Amana is a newly formed party, It was established in 2015 following a consensus between the leaders of the Malaysian Workers’ Party and MB leadership to form a new party, Sabo, vice-chairman of the former Malaysian Islamic Party.

Mahathir was a member of MB during his university studies, but he withdrew from MB to join Parisian, who ruled the country at the time. He was included in the leadership positions within the party until he became Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003.

Malaysian – Qatari Relations

Sabo was chosen by Mahathir to serve as defense minister in the coalition government.

Sabo paid a short visit this week to Qatar, the host country of the terrorist group, and held a meeting with the spiritual leader of the MB Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

A photo he gathered with Sabo at an informal meeting at his residence.

In July 2018, Sabo announced the withdrawal of its troops from the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi group allied with Iran in Yemen, saying that his country preferred to take a neutral stance on the conflict in Yemen.

Seek for more gains

MB has wanted to win 40 seats in the last election, by attracting Islamist voices in the country; the party does not hide its intention to apply a hardline model of Islam when it reaches power.

The party’s president, Abdul Hadi Awang, told «Reuters» in an earlier statement: «The government must put Islam at the heart of its policy ».

MB in Malaysia has shown political pragmatism in dealing with various political parties. The party ran the 2013 elections in the opposition coalition and won 21 seats in the Malaysian parliament.

But they withdrew from the alliance with the opposition in 2015 and returned to the opposition early this year, and allied with Mahathir Mohammed.

MB party is keen to communicate with the political parties on the Malaysian scene. At the party’s general assembly, which was held in the middle of last month, leaders of the Parisian alliance were seen among the attendees.

Somisha Naid a political journalist said in an article on Malaysia’s Newsia website Malaysian leaders have called on the leaders of the Parisian Alliance to attend the General Assembly of the Malaysian Islamic Party, an attempt to gain more political gains, especially that the Parisian alliance had ruled the country for a long time since independence from the British occupation.

She said the MB sees the Barisan Alliance as a political representative of the Malay ethnic minority, which accounts for 60 percent of the 31 million populations.

She hopes at the end of her article how the party can manage its alliances between the opposition and the government in the near future.

In 1972, the party joined the Parisian alliance and managed to win 14 seats in the 1974 elections. However, a strong dispute broke relations between the party and the rest of the Parisian alliance, A bitter loss for the party in the 1978 elections, when the Brotherhood won only five parliamentary seats.

Mahathir Mohammed is expected to remain prime minister for only two years and then hand over power to veteran politician Anwar Ibrahim, who told a press conference this week on the sidelines of the Singapore 2018 Economic and Industrial Summit said that The country needed stability and a strong leader,” Mahathir said. “I am confident that he is doing his job effectively.”

He added: “We are not in a hurry, because he (Mahathir) is playing a very important role for the country.