Umno woos PAS, abandons bickering allies

(The Malaysian Insider) – KUALA LUMPUR: The simple fact is this – Umno has given up on some of its bickering allies within the Barisan Nasional. Hence the dominant party in the ruling coalition has seized on the idea of a unity government with political rivals PAS.

It might not lead to anything but Umno knows its allies are too weak to protest. And on the flip side as Lim Kit Siang suspects, the illusion of unity talks can sow discord within the opposition Pakatan Rakyat pact and scatter them like a cat amongst birds.

That is already happening with three-term PAS No. 2 Nasharuddin Mat Isa vilified for being involved in clandestine Malay unity talks last year and being receptive to further talks with Umno.

Party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, who tossed the idea, has also not been spared but he remains powerful and has packed his central committee with allies to prevent a large-scale revolt.

Within PAS, the idea of unity talks with Umno is all but dead and buried, as party secretary Datuk Mustafa Ali affirmed in the past week.

Yet, Umno is pushing the idea of unity talks on the back of pessimism by several party think tanks that privately admit they cannot count on non-Malay support in any future elections within the peninsula. It has already lost all five by-elections in the peninsula since Election 2008 with another defeat looming in Manek Urai.

That leaves the party to bank on the Malay electorate, which contributed a majority of the two million votes that returned 79 Umno MPs to parliament in Election 2008. But with 5.7 million eligible Malay voters in the 12th general election and 3.5 million Umno members, it failed to capture most of its base support.

And the shrinking non-Malay support is expected to evaporate further, Umno politicians say, noting the discord between MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and deputy Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek; Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu’s continued leadership of a weakened MIC that has left the party bereft of solid second-echelon leaders; and a budding rift in Gerakan, which just suspended little-known vice-president Huan Cheng Guan, the former Batu Kawan MP.

Adding to their pessimism is the open split in the tiny PPP where president Datuk M. Kayveas is in a public spat with Senator T. Murugiah, who now claims the party presidency.

This has led to Umno flirting and courting the Islamist party for the hearts and minds of the Malays.

“We can’t count on our allies and on non-Malay support, so we might as well stick to the Malay ground,” an Umno warlord who is involved in one informal party think tank told The Malaysian Insider.

The think tank is one of several Umno has set up in the aftermath of its dismal outing in Election 2008, tasked with regaining Malay support that evaporated to PAS and its allies.

In a recent meeting, the think tank members discussed strategies to take back support from the Malay heartland such as Kedah which is held by PAS. The Islamist party also controls Kelantan and until recently, led the Perak government until the February 5 political putsch that brought it to Barisan Nasional.

Both party president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin have come round to the idea of unity talks with PAS. It has also received the support of other senior party leaders in an attempt to ensure Umno remains at the helm of the federal government.

Ironically, Najib is the son of Tun Abdul Razak Hussein who expanded the original three-party Alliance into the Barisan Nasional in the aftermath of the May 13 riots, bringing in all parties except DAP and PSRM into a national coalition government.

Would Najib be the one to repudiate such a coalition in favour of a narrow Malay agenda and ensure Umno remains in power?

An Umno leader shook his head but said it would depend on the Barisan Nasional component parties in the peninsula resolving their internal differences to work as a team for the next polls.

“The allies in Sabah and Sarawak are okay. The problem is in the peninsula,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

However, not all in Umno are in favour of working with PAS.

Influential former party president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has opposed the idea, saying it was a bad idea to have a government comprising only Malays and jeopardise Umno’s ties with its allies.

The former prime minister said yesterday the government needed to explain what their objective was and if they were willing to leave their “friends” to form a government which only comprised the Malays.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Dr Mahathir said succinctly.

The DAP leader Lim Kit Siang noted that Muhyiddin’s eagerness for a Umno-PAS unity government  discredited and mocked Najib’s 1 Malaysia concept,  saying it was “undoing 52 years of Malaysian nation-building by five previous Prime Ministers”.

He gave two reasons for Muhyiddin’s support for the talks.

“Firstly, the top Umno leadership sees in the present political scenario a golden opportunity to divide PAS and split the Pakatan Rakyat; and secondly, Umno continues to play the role of the political hegemony in the Barisan Nasional, with the other BN component parties whether MCA, MIC, Gerakan, SUPP, PBS totally irrelevant as mere puppets, digits and ciphers,” Lim said.

But all of Umno’s pushing could come to nought as early as this week when the PAS leadership begins a series of meetings to quell the budding split in party ranks over the unity talks. They are expected to reaffirm support for the Pakatan Rakyat.

Yet, that won’t stop Umno from trying to tempt PAS into cooperating for Malay unity. And keep their grip on power.