Despite PAS rebuff, Muhyiddin says Umno’s doors still open

Muhyiddin says Umno looks after the good of the people, not just the party. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — Despite outright rejection by PAS and his relentless criticism against the party today, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has repeated Umno’s pitch for the Islamist party to join his in a unity government.

Brandishing faith as his banner, the Umno deputy president said the proposal was for the sake of Islam and not political expediency.

“For the good of the people, we have never closed our doors (to PAS). Whether or not they want to accept, it is a different question.

“Our call is not political, but for the people’s benefit and that is what differentiates Umno from PAS — Umno looks after the good of the people as a whole while PAS only focuses on the interest of the party,” he said after a series of walkabouts in the city here this afternoon.

Since Election 2008, Umno has repeatedly sought to woo PAS into forming a unity government despite criticisms from its non-Malay Barisan Nasional (BN) partners like MCA.

Today, Muhyiddin acknowledged PAS’s rejection of Umno’s proposal but told the Islamist party that if it was “sincere” in fighting for Islam, it should realise that such political co-operation would only benefit the people.

“They only seem to be choosing what they want for political gains — if they can reap benefit for themselves, they will choose it, if not, they won’t.

“If we are sincere in our struggles for Islam, we must understand that to receive Allah’s blessings, we cannot pick and choose only what we think will bring us personal gains,” he said.

On that note, Muhyiddin proclaimed Umno was more sincere in wanting Malay-Muslim unity than PAS.

He said the ruling party’s proposal was born out of a sincere intention to unite the Muslims in the country.

“We have stated, in all sincerity, that on the question of unity, we want Muslims to stay united,” he said.