Umno riding a tiger, DAP man says on ties with PAS

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang with Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan during the Cameron Highlands campaign earlier this month. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: DAP’s P Ramasamy today questioned the collaboration between Umno and PAS, which was largely credited for Barisan Nasional’s (BN) victory in the Cameron Highlands polls, cautioning the two parties against assuming a repeat performance in the upcoming by-election for the Semenyih state seat.

PAS, which opted out of the Cameron Highlands by-election, had thrown its support behind BN candidate Ramli Mohd Nor who won by over 3,000 votes against his closest competitor, Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) M Manogaran.

Ramasamy, who is deputy chief minister II of Penang, said Umno appeared to think that it could repeat its Cameron Highlands success with the support of PAS.

“PAS is not naive,” he added. “It will go along with Umno for a while, but as we know, it will not play second fiddle too long.

“PAS is just testing the waters in backing the second evil, but no one knows how long such an opportunistic collaboration will last. Essentially, for the moment, Umno is riding the ‘PAS tiger’.”

Yesterday, PAS said it would wait and see who BN chose as its candidate for the Semenyih by-election before deciding whether to support the coalition again.

The Islamist party also gave way to BN in the Sungai Kandis by-election last year.

However, Ramasamy said any idea of a repeat victory in Semenyih by Umno and PAS was only “wishful thinking”.

In a statement, he acknowledged similarities between Cameron Highlands and Semenyih in terms of racial composition, but also noted the urban nature of the Selangor state seat.

“Just because there is a Malay majority in Semenyih does not mean that they will be swayed by the ethnic and religious rhetoric of Umno and PAS,” he said, adding that PH had won the seat with a majority of over 8,000 votes in last year’s general election.

“There are no indications that votes will swing back to BN even with the support of PAS, although the majority could be reduced.”

He added that nearly a third of the voters in Semenyih are Chinese and Indian.

“With MCA and MIC out of the political picture, I seriously doubt that Umno will get the support of the non-Malays.”

However, he cautioned PH against taking support for granted, saying it must think seriously about what was promised in its manifesto before the last general election.

“It’s about time that the PH manifesto is translated into practice,” he said.

“Even if PH is not unduly concerned about the coming by-election, it should think about winning the next general election.” - FMT