Umno to consider delegates’ push for talks with PAS, not PN

Umno will take into account the growing preference for the party to focus political cooperation talks with PAS rather than Perikatan Nasional as a whole before forming a committee to handle such negotiations.

Umno secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said debates at the party’s general assembly, which concludes today, showed a tendency among delegates for direct engagement with PAS.

“In past elections, we held negotiations with both PAS and PN,” he told a press conference on the sidelines of the general assembly.

“But if we look at the debates and the delegates, there is a tendency for us to focus negotiations with the PAS leadership rather than PN.”

During this morning’s debate, Kedah Umno said it would begin discussions with PAS but not with PN.

Merbok division chief Shaiful Hazizy Zainal Abidin said the state chapter would negotiate with PAS, but not PN, citing the presence of a party within PN he described as “the cat”.

Umno committed to unity government

Asyraf dismissed suggestions that cooperation between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan was “a crack waiting to split”, saying Umno remained committed to the agreement on the formation of the unity government.

He said the agreement would remain in place until Parliament was dissolved, after which each party would be free to chart its own course.

According to him, the agreement, involving 18 parties, was signed when Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in and was known as the “agreement on the formation of the unity government of Malaysia”.

He said Umno had maintained from the outset that the provisions of the agreement must be respected.

“The first thing stated (in the agreement) is that the government formed must be called the ‘unity government of Malaysia’.

“This means the government is not a one-party government. So the prime minister must always consult all the parties that make up this government. It is not like previous governments.

“We will not pull the roof down or change this government through a change limited only to the prime minister. We are thinking about political stability,” he said.

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