PAS ready to reestablish cooperation with UMNO
TEMERLOH: PAS is prepared to reestablish cooperation with UMNO but does not want to align with Pakatan Harapan (PH).
According to the MalaysiaGazette portal, PAS President Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang said this move is aimed at uniting Malays, Muslims, and Bumiputera.
He stated that as long as PH adheres to inconsistent and pragmatic principles and policies, PAS will not collaborate with that party.
“PH’s component parties do not have firm principles… they have policies that contradict our struggle, such as DAP.
“DAP is secular, Malaysia Malaysia, and even in international politics, it follows Singapore, Taiwan, and the US (United States),” he said.
He made these comments during a press conference after delivering the Presidential Policy Speech at the PAS Annual Assembly at the Al Makmur Complex today.
When asked whether cooperation would be reestablished through Muafakat Nasional (MN) to achieve this goal, Abdul Hadi said that there are indeed plans involving former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and President of Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra), Datuk Dr. Ibrahim Ali.
He mentioned that, so far, these efforts do not involve UMNO President Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
“The original discussion was about the unity of Malays, Muslims, and Bumiputera, involving UMNO members, but not Zahid Hamidi.
“When Zahid was on leave, we agreed to gather Bumiputera MPs to take over the government with Bersatu. We successfully took over the government (Perikatan Nasional administration). The position was not strong or stable.
“But there was success and impact… the impact was that some UMNO leaders joined us, though only a few with Zahid,” he said.
Previously, Ahmad Zahid was reported as saying that his party would not cooperate with PAS as long as Abdul Hadi remains president of the PN component party.
He said that previous experiences of working with PAS led to this decision.
He also claimed that many joint decisions made earlier between the two parties were betrayed by PAS.