Let’s drop PAS in GE15, Nur Jazlan tells Umno as cracks appear

 

Nur Jazlan Mohamed says Umno has always viewed PAS with suspicion. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: An Umno leader has called for the party to reconsider its ties with PAS in Muafakat Nasional (MN) as cracks between the two largest Malay parties, which got together in 2019 as a pact to dethrone Pakatan Harapan (PH), have surfaced recently.

The latest episode involving the planned sale of prime property belonging to cash-rich Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB) which is under the jurisdiction of PAS minister Khairuddin Aman Razali, saw him trading barbs with Umno MP Ahmad Nazlan Idris, who was the board’s former chairman.

Johor Umno deputy head Nur Jazlan Mohamed said PAS will most likely be a liability in the next general election (GE15) if the parties cooperated, going by recent actions by some of its leaders which he feels have exposed the other side of PAS.

“Umno has always been suspicious of PAS leaders as they now seem to be more interested in power and position and, in some cases, money too. And in the current episode involving Lembaga Getah Malaysia (MRB), there are some serious allegations,” he told FMT.

Yesterday, Khairuddin, the plantation industries and commodities minister, claimed that some Umno leaders were attacking him over the MRB controversy.

He claimed that the Facebook page carrying allegations against him over the MRB issue was “friendly” to some Umno leaders. However, the PAS strategic director said this would not deter him from continuing to strengthen MN.

Earlier, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had called up Nazlan for a statement in connection with the allegations on the MRB land issue.

Nur Jazlan said PAS had also failed to deliver good governance and prosperity to the people in the states it ruled or where it held power in the past. “The failure of the Terengganu government led by its president Abdul Hadi Awang from 1999 to 2004 is an example.”

He said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, as the head of Perikatan Nasional (PN), clearly favours PAS over Umno and was refusing to act against errant PAS ministers, a move which he claims was aimed at splitting the two parties.

In February, Nur Jazlan had asked PAS to state its official stand on whose side it was on – with Umno in MN or with Bersatu in PN.

Describing the party as making a “neither here nor there” stand in the current political equation, he had asked PAS to be “brave and honest” in making a decision on whose side it was on.

To some political observers, the MRB issue could be a catalyst that could lead to the break-up of Umno-PAS ties for a second time in the history of Malaysian politics if not handled well.

“Historically, the supporters of the two parties have not been able to accept each other, with PAS claiming that Umno had steered away from Islamic principles. Umno had responded in the past by trying to be more Islamic but lost much non-Malay support,” said one observer.

In 1972, then prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein managed to get PAS to join the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, while PAS was the state government in Kelantan, in a move to unite the nation after the May 13 racial riots left the nation disunited.

However, the courtship lasted only five years when trouble brewed between them, leading to the government declaring an emergency in Kelantan in November 1977, with PAS officially leaving BN the following month. - FMT