Can PAS dance with Umno?
By Kenny Gan
After the 55th PAS Muktamar, Umno has indeed grabbed hold of the weak spot in Pakatan Rakyat and exploited it to their advantage. The weak spot is PAS and the opportunity came in the form of the apparent readiness of certain leaders in PAS for talks with Umno, purportedly on a unity government.
As these leaders include the newly elected President and Deputy President a worried outcry is has been raised on PAS’ intention and its commitment to the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
First of all, we must ask, “What unity government?” Umno has never warmed up to PAS President Hadi Awang’s call for a unity government when it first surfaced last year nor are they likely to now.
Although some leaders in PAS may have allowed themselves to be seduced by a possible shortcut to political power, they can go on dreaming. Umno does not even share any real power with its partners much less will it share it with PAS.
Umno will of course let the issue of unity government dangle in the wind instead of stating their stand clearly. The fear of a unity government will serve to whip up pressure within Pakatan and confuse PR voters although it can also be a double-edged sword but more on that later.
Khairy was more realistic in jumping on the call for Umno-PAS talks on the basis of finding common grounds for tackling national issues and strengthening Malay unity. But if Khairy is really sincere, why wasn’t DAP and PKR included in tacking national issues and how can any discussion on Malay unity leave out PKR and Anwar Ibrahim who is a major Malay leader?
Malay unity is a hollow concept which will heighten ethnic insecurity of the other races and is odious when one should be talking about national unity in tandem with 1Malaysia. Fortunately the Malays have become too diverse to be united under one party and any attempt to tie up the Malay voting block will be detrimental to both parties.
Apparently the “talks” are pointless and intended to drive a wedge between PAS and its partners in Pakatan. We must understand that it is not even necessary for actual talks to take place but the mere intimation of talks is enough to create pressure between the partners and confuse voters.
However it is surprising those high-ranking PAS leaders like Hadi Awang and Nasharuddin cannot see through this transparent Umno trap. But it would also be unfair to ignore their many expressions of support for PR and attacks on Umno in their speeches and pick on a couple of seeming overtures to Umno.
One gets the impression that both Hadi and Nasharuddin are not the political simpletons we may think but their casual references to Umno is meant to serve as an oblique warning to PKR and DAP that PAS is not to be taken for granted in the coalition.
