Umno-PAS ‘union’
Umno and PAS union aims to bring Muslims together
A day after MCA and MIC said they want to ‘move on’, Umno made a move of its own, announcing that it and PAS are ‘married’ through a formal collaboration. Given that MCA has long opposed working with PAS, there will be no love lost at the Barisan Nasional meeting scheduled for this Friday.
KUALA LUMPUR: It sounds like love is in the air, with Umno and PAS announcing their formal collaboration.
“We exchanged rings in Sungai Kandis, got engaged in Seri Setia and then decided we wanted to get married. This is the official ceremony. And now we are sitting on the dais,” said Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.
He said the two parties were coming together to work on a political platform without any conditions, especially in by-elections, for the interest of uniting the Muslims and Malays.
“Our agenda is not to create a Malay pact versus the non-Malays. We want to unite the Muslims and bumiputras without sidelining any other race and religion,” he said.
However, Mohamad added that the parties would not be uniting or forming a coalition.
He spoke to the media after a three-hour meeting between top Umno and PAS leaders at the Umno headquarters here in Putra World Trade Centre to work out the formation of a technical committee for
Our agenda is not to create a Malay pact versus the non-Malays. We want to unite the Muslims and bumiputras without sidelining any other race and religion. Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan
the collaboration.
He said in the meeting yesterday, it was decided that a technical committee would be set up with five members from each party.
It will be chaired by Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin and PAS vice-president Dr Idris Ahmad.
Mohamad said the two parties would form a PAS-Umno Negotiation Committee and an opposition caucus in parliament.
“This main committee will be jointly chaired by me and PAS deputy president Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.
“Umno and PAS have agreed that this is a cooperation in which we respect each other and work on finding the meeting point between the two parties for the sake of the unity of Muslims (ummah). There are no conditions imposed on either party.
“This committee is to formalise our cooperation,” he said, adding that the committee would iron out the framework for their future cooperation.
“We agreed that we will continue with the cooperation in all future by-elections. If we are still together by GE15, we will continue (cooperating).”
Mohamad also told reporters that PAS and Umno were set to hold roadshows across the country to explain the formal cooperation to the grassroots.
The announcement of the UmnoPAS tie-up came a day after Umno’s Barisan Nasional partners MCA and MIC declared their intention to forge a new alliance, blaming racial remarks by Barisan secretary-general Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz at the recent Semenyih by-election for further straining ties in the troubled coalition.
MCA and MIC made the announcement in a joint statement signed by their respective presidents Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong and Tan Sri S.A. Vigneswaran.
“When there is no mutual respect and there is a breach of unity in diversity within the component parties of Barisan, the very foundation of Barisan has been challenged and threatened,” read the joint MCA-MIC statement released on Monday.
Mohamad yesterday also said that while the formal cooperation with PAS would not involve any non-Malays, the non-Malays would not be sidelined.
He also rubbished claims that Umno and PAS would share a logo.
“Those who say that are from Hospital Bahagia (mental hospital),” he said.
“We are not only for the Malay Muslims, but also for the interests of the whole country when we say ummah (Muslim nation),” said Tuan Ibrahim.
Last month, Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the cooperation between Umno and PAS was not a political gimmick but a sincere collaboration for the sake of Islam, the Malays and the country.
After the Barisan wins in the Cameron Highlands and Semenyih by-elections, Umno and PAS have concluded that their collaboration can rattle the ruling coalition Pakatan.
The Star reported yesterday that the GE14 results show that there are 21 Pakatan Harapan parliamentary seats where the combined votes for the Umno and PAS candidates outnumbered the votes received by the Pakatan victors.
Of these seats, nine are held by PKR while Bersatu and Amanah each hold six.
Among the big-name MPs in these seats are the mentris besar of Kedah Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir (Jerlun) and Perak Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu (Tambun).