Things UMNO PAS Ought To Do To Win GE15
All the secrecy over the actual content of the charter is because Umno and PAS want to make sure Umno’s allies MCA and MIC are kept in the dark at least for now, as both parties will not be happy if “things listed in the charter are only favourable to Malay Muslims.”
Mohsin Abdullah, Sin Chew Daily
According to research outfit Ilham Centre, the Umno–PAS pact can or rather have good potential to win the next general elections if they meet certain conditions.
The centre’s CEO Mohd Azlan Zainal tells me condition one is for Umno and PAS to merge as an official alliance and contest GE15 under one common logo.
They can do this say Azlan by PAS joining the BN as a component and contest GE15 using the BN dacing logo. Or “Umno and PAS form a new political coalition with a new brand and new logo,” say Azlan.
As he rightly points out both options have its pro and cons. So will the two parties go for it? So far there are no signs to show Umno and PAS are moving towards that – be it option one or option two.
Although they have officially sealed their tie up which they called Penyatuan Muafakat Nasional, no details were revealed. More about this later. Meanwhile Umno, in particular, have always said its too early to talk about GE15 especially its plans with PAS to face the next general election.
Moving on to condition two which Azlan say is for Umno and PAS to prove to the rakyat that their pact is for real and that they are ready to rule the country. To do this he say both parties need to accommodate each other in states where they are now governing ie Perlis, Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan.
As we know Perlis and Pahang are run by BN which in reality is Umno as other BN components were wiped out in GE14 last year. Terengganu and Kelantan are ruled by PAS.
“Therefore in the four states Umno and PAS must immediately form joint governments to instill confidence to the people“, say Azlan.
However up till now we are not seeing any of that and both parties are somehow not keen in having each other’s members even to sit in the states’ exco.
Another condition as Azlan sees it is for Umno–PAS alliance to rope in non-Malay parties to join them as “an all Malay alliance will not help them win Malaysia“.
This both parties know and according to some political observers they are now working towards getting non-Malay parties to join them. However if the non-Malay parties would be accorded equal status is another question.
And condition four is naturally for Umno–PAS coalition to be joined also by parties from Sabah and Sarawak. “Any coalition wanting to win the nation must win parliamentary seats in Sabah and Sarawak. Without that it cannot succeed”, say Azlan. He is of course right.
So that’s the four conditions Umno-PAS must fulfill if they are serious in wanting to win GE15. Wiil they do it ? Can they do it ?
Now to the details (or lack of it) of the Umno-PAS pact or charter as mentioned earlier.
When the charter was unveiled on 14 September at PWTC in the federal capital, details were not revealed. I brought this up with long time PAS watcher and political writer Mohd Sayuti Omar for an earlier article which I wrote for The Edge.
I quoted him saying the charter is seen as a document that clearly stipulates offers and pledges agreed upon by Umno and PAS –“
Everybody knows its about politics so everybody wants to know the terms and conditions of the charter as well as what has been agreed upon by both parties”.
Other than seat allocation says Sayuti, the make up of the Cabinet and the mechanism to be used in drawing up the Cabinet must be made known to inspire confidence.
And he took it up a notch saying : “Why not make it known that Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang will be prime minister” in the event Umno-PAS succeeds in toppling the Pakatan Harapan government?
Incidently some political observers opine that the PAS president is positioning himself to be PM judging from the fact that PAS is in two poltical coalitons ie Gagasan Sejahtera comprising Malay Muslim parties and the other Muafakat Nasional which it sits with Umno and indirectly with MCA and MIC which are Umno’s partners in BN.
Anyway Sayuti believes all the secrecy over the actual content of the charter is because Umno and PAS want to make sure Umno’s allies MCA and MIC are kept in the dark at least for now, as both parties will not be happy if “things listed in the charter are only favourable to Malay Muslims.”
But interestingly four days before the Umno-PAS charter was unveiled back in September, Umno secretary general Tan Sri Annuar Musa issued a statement. Among others he had said only a one page summary of the charter would be made public. Indeed that what was the case. The rest of the document as said by Annuar, is classified as an “internal document of both parties “.
It has remained so until now.
