Muafakat is dead, says Umno Youth

(FMT) – The death knell may have sounded on the Muafakat Nasional (MN) pact as Umno Youth acknowledged today that PAS was now officially a part of Perikatan Nasional (PN).

Its chief, Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, said all direct negotiations on seats for the 15th general election (GE15) would be done with PN and not with PAS.

“The cooperation between Umno-Barisan Nasional (BN) and PN depends heavily on the distribution of seats.

“This means the distribution of seats is no longer based on Umno’s discussions with PAS, but between BN and PN, because PAS has officially joined PN as a component party,” he said in a Facebook post.

MN is a coalition that was formed last year between Umno and PAS to fight the then ruling Pakatan Harapan.

Asyraf also said the Umno and BN supreme councils have agreed to support the PN-led government until GE15, adding that the party had mooted the idea of a presidential council since March.

He said the presidential council would help prevent any further disputes between parties over the government’s decision to implement certain policies.

It would also allow Umno-BN to directly voice out its concerns to the government, such as issues involving the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and loan moratoriums, he said.

Earlier this month, PN secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin announced that the parties had agreed to form a presidential council to strengthen cooperation among themselves.

Yesterday, other parties in the government including components of BN and Gabungan Parti Sarawak agreed to take part in the council.