Malaysian politics reached a climax over the 9 December 2017 weekend as UMNO, the backbone of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, went into battle mode to face the impending general election. The 14th election must be called anytime between now and August next year but widely expected to be in the first quarter.

The dominant narrative emerging from the annual UMNO general assembly is a do-or-die “Mother of All Elections” the second time in five years this phrase has been used. BN must not only win big, but also snatch back the two-thirds supermajority it first lost in 2008 and failed to recover in 2013. Is this narrative a reflection of UMNO’s growing confidence of retaining power? Or chest-thumping to whip up the morale of the party that has seen in recent years a series shocks and setbacks, internally and nationally?

…Yang Razali Kassim is a Senior Fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.