Hadi: Umno is sinking and we don't want to sink with it

Rejecting calls by those in Umno for the unification of the Malays, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has described the Malay nationalist party as one that "is drowning and cannot be saved any more".

Hadi, who is also Marang MP, is quoted by Berita Harian today as saying that if PAS went with Umno, which was drowning, he feared that PAS would also sink.

"They are drowning... and I am by the shoreline. We cannot go near, for if we go near we will also drown," Hadi said in response to calls from his former deputy, Nasharudin Mat Isa, that Umno and PAS unite for the benefit of Islam and to uplift the Malays.

PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan described Nasharudin's call as a joke and said such unification could not take place, since the BN government continued to discriminate against the people, especially in matters pertaining to oil royalty and development grants to states governed by the opposition.

"The calls for unity are repeated time and again and come to no benefit unless the country first practises mature politics by accommodating differences of opinion, returns the rights of the people and abolishes discrimination.

"It is only when such actions are carried out that we can talk about unity," Nasrudin is quoted as saying in today's Sinar Harian.

Besides Nasharudin, many others, including the National Youth Council, have called for the unification of Umno and PAS, saying both parties should find a common ground for the Malays and Muslims to unite.