The dominant narrative emerging from the much-anticipated United Malays National Organisation general assembly last week was that Malaysia’s ruling party must prepare for and do well in a do-or-die general election due by August 2018, but widely expected now in the first quarter.

UMNO president and Prime Minister Najib Razak called on delegates to “win big” at the upcoming “mother of all elections”, while his deputy Ahmad Zahid Hamidi called on the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition led by UMNO to also snatch back the two-thirds supermajority it first lost in 2008 and failed to recover in 2013.

Is this a reflection of UMNO’s growing confidence to retain power? Or is it 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.