PAS spiritual leader ‘confident’ over informal talks to revive Muafakat Nasional

A PAS leader is “confident” that informal talks between the leaders of the party and Umno to revive the Muafakat Nasional (MN) pact will yield results.

(FMT) – PAS spiritual adviser Hashim Jasin said many still believe that MN is not dead yet and want to continue with the cooperation.

“Official meetings may not have taken place yet. But, informally, I believe there have been efforts at all leadership levels (to revive MN). They still believe that the door for cooperation has not yet closed.

“As a result of various issues touching on the sensitivities of Malay- Muslims lately, I have seen awareness among Umno leaders,” he said, according to Sinar Harian.

The former Sanglang assemblyman said the issues included the striking down of 16 provisions of the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019 by the Federal Court, and the proposal by housing and local government minister Nga Kor Ming from DAP to nominate Chinese New Villages in Selangor as Unesco world heritage sites.

PAS and Umno have previously accused each other of neglecting the MN charter they founded almost five years ago.

Relations between the two parties have been tense since PAS joined Perikatan Nasional led by Bersatu, with PAS also desiring the participation of Umno splinter party Bersatu in MN.

Umno, however, strongly opposes this, seeing Bersatu as a traitor trying to “kill” the party.

Claiming that PAS has never declared Umno as an enemy, Hashim said both parties need to set aside their differences by putting the goal of “uniting the ummah” above the political interests of their respective parties.

“Umno needs to reconsider the issue of Malay-Muslim unity because Bersatu can still set aside their ego and agree to accept Umno for the sake of ummah unity.

“PAS, on the other hand, cannot accept DAP because we know the party has never endorsed the ummah unity agenda that MN is trying to achieve,” he said, adding that the relationship betw