[3] He had served as Deputy President of PAS, a former component party of the former Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and Barisan Alternatif (BA) opposition coalitions, from 2011 to 2015.

On 28 June 2018, Mat Sabu announced that Malaysia will withdraw its troops stationed in Saudi Arabia to reflect the country's neutrality in the region.

During his two years in the detention centre, Mat Sabu entered into a friendship with the father and son and defended the duo and their party from accusations of racism in 2017.

A video of the speech was uploaded on YouTube and received mainly negative responses, as the statement was regarded as an insult to the family members of the deceased policemen,[15] as well as other national heroes not affiliated with the CPM such as the late Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman and UMNO founder Dato' Onn Jaafar.

[16] On 30 August 2011, Karpal Singh, the Bukit Gelugor MP at the time, responded by saying that the 25 policemen who died were true patriots and that Mat Sabu's statements were ill-advised.

On 21 September 2011, Mat Sabu was charged under Section 500 of the Penal Code at the Butterworth Sessions Court for aggravating the image of their police and their families in a talk at Padang Menora on 21 August 2011.

On 31 July 2018, Mat Sabu revealed to the press that only four of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF)'s 18 Russian fighter jets were operational.

On 5 January 2019, Mat Sabu's son, Ahmad Saiful Islam Mohamad, was arrested with 100 others for testing positive for drugs in Kuala Lumpur.

[19] He was convicted on 24 June 2021 but the Kuala Lumpur High Court had on 27 October acquitted him by allowing his appeal to overturn the guilty verdict and eight-month jail sentence over the drug abuse case.