KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 — Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is confident that he and his Opposition party will overcome all their current adversities and beat the ruling parties to form the federal government at the next general election.

The former prime minister said Bersatu had gone against the odds in the past and not only survived but triumphed, and could do it again.

In a lengthy speech at the Bersatu annual general assembly today, the Pagoh MP recalled how the party had faced great difficulty to get official recognition by the Registrar of Societies a few years ago, and more recently had its bank accounts frozen by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on allegations of money laundering.

“Despite all that we are still here, and not only that, we were able to defeat the kleptocratic party called Barisan Nasional and Umno; we broke their 60-year dominance,” he said to rapturous applause from hundreds of Bersatu delegates today.

“Our resolve was never weakened and we proved all the political analysts and observers wrong when we outperformed them at the 14th general elections. Our support increased from 13 seats in GE14 to 31 seats in GE15, more than the 26 Umno won in GE15.

“All this was possible due to the change in attitudes from the people. They judged the party on its values and they appreciate honesty, integrity and a clean party like us,” he added.

Muhyiddin said Bersatu members should be proud that its Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition won 74 federal seats out of 222 in GE15, and managed to form the state government in Perlis, which he noted had been a longtime Umno stronghold, and came close to taking control of Perak and Pahang too.

Perlis, Perak and Pahang held concurrent state elections last November with national polls.

Muhyiddin congratulated the 74 PN MPs and 57 state assemblymen from the three states.

“PN is emerging as the people’s top choice, especially for the Malays and Bumiputera. We see around 60 per cent of them chose us the moment Umno decided to be in cahoots with DAP and Pakatan Harapan.

“With this large support and also support from other races PN will emerge as a new political power in Malaysia,” he said.

Bersatu members from all over the country attended the party’s assembly today to show solidarity with Muhyiddin after he was charged in court with money laundering party funds and corruption last week.

The 75-year-old was Malaysia’s eighth prime minister from February 2020 to August 2021.