UMNO deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan has refuted claims that there were party leaders engaged in discussions with its political arch-rival PAS.
Mohamad said UMNO and Barisan Nasional (BN) have already decided on contesting on their own in the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15).
“I don’t know who he’s (PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang) discussing with, but it’s definitely not me,” Bernama quoted Mohamad as saying on the sidelines of an event last night (Sept 3).
“So let’s not speculate about other parties; just take care of our own. I take care of mine, he takes care of his.
“Whatever negotiations, they must be transparent, don’t do it in the dark, it shouldn’t be that way,” he added.
Yesterday (Sept 3), Hadi reportedly insisted that discussions between PAS and UMNO are still ongoing, even after UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi rejection of the parties working together again one day earlier (Aug 2).
Speaking at the PAS muktamar in Kedah, Hadi said that was merely Zahid’s own statement and not representative of UMNO members and grassroots, Malaysiakini reported, adding that nothing is impossible in politics.
Tit-for-tat
This was the latest tit-for-tat after PAS deputy president Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the party had never said the Muafakat Nasional (MN) pact between both parties had been dissolved.
This prompted Zahid to say that PAS was to blame for UMNO’s decision to go solo in GE15 because the Islamist party has its fingers in “too many pies”.
Meanwhile, Mohamad said he was unsure whether Zahid had decided on any party leader to negotiate with PAS.
“As of today, I don’t know. So maybe there is, but I don’t know.
“As far as I have been the deputy president, I have never heard of the president doing such a thing of sending a special representative for negotiations,” he added, according to Bernama.
The MN coalition was set up between PAS and UMNO in the aftermath of the 14th General Election (GE14) in 2018, in which BN was booted out of power after 61 years.
The coalition hit a snag after Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), who was also invited to join MN, formed another coalition, Perikatan Nasional (PN), with only PAS.
This after PPBM betrayed UMNO during the 2020 Sabah state elections by standing in traditional BN seats.
Since then, ties between UMNO and PPBM, and UMNO and PAS, have been icy, with only PPBM and PAS still being allies after working together to bring down the Pakatan Harapan Government in 2020. – Sept 4, 2022
Main photo credit: Malaysia Dateline
