Unite with PAS to face DAP, Umno assembly told

(Malay Mail Online) – Umno must not view PAS as its political rival but an ally with which it could fend off DAP’s challenge, a delegate told the Malay nationalist party today.

Speaking during the debate on Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s policy speech, Datuk Din Adam said that there were many benefits to be gained from cooperating with PAS.

“Don’t look at PAS as our enemy. We have to view DAP as our main enemy.

“PAS members are of the same religion and race as us,” he said.

Malay Mail Online was not allowed to cover the debates but managed to obtain a recording and transcript of Din’s speech.

The Umno delegate said that working together with PAS would also help improve Umno’s support base in Terengganu, especially in the rural constituencies.

“With this, Insya’Allah, those who support PAS will support Barisan Nasional in the next general election,” Din added.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang last night reaffirmed his party’s political commitment to PKR in the opposition bench, after an open call to collaborate from Najib and Umno.

In a vaguely-worded statement, Abdul Hadi said PAS is open to team up with any political party to promote unity, based on Islamic principles.

He also said any new political development would be thoroughly analysed and discussed by its central working committee for a collective decision.

The PAS chief’s remarks come after Najib said in his opening speech at Umno general assembly that he was happy that PAS was no longer a part of the opposition pact, and sought to mend ties with the Islamist party.

Najib yesterday also warned Malays that Umno’s defeat would put them under the rule of DAP, which he categorised as anti-Malay and anti-Islam.

Talk of collaboration between the two political parties resurfaced recently when PAS vice-president Datuk Husam Musa claimed that Abdul Hadi had approached Umno to form a unity government in Selangor during the state’s mentri besar crisis last year.

PAS had been a part of the ruling front ― then called the Alliance ― in the early 1970s. It left the coalition after a falling out with Umno over a reduction in federal seat allocations and a ban on PAS from holding public election rallies.

PAS and DAP are former allies in the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat pact, which collapsed after both became antagonistic over the Islamist party’s ambition to implement hudud, the Islamic penal code.

DAP and PKR went on to form Pakatan Harapan with PAS splinter party Amanah, but the Islamist party insists Pakatan Rakyat was still functional with it and PKR as the remaining members.