Muafakat Nasional agrees to invite PPBM

The Muafakat Nasional pact was formally set up in September last year between Umno and PAS.

PETALING JAYA: Muafakat Nasional (MN), the pact forged between Umno and PAS, has agreed to issue an invitation to PPBM, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced early this morning.

In a tweet, he said this was decided at a meeting chaired by the deputy presidents of the two largest Malay parties – Umno’s Mohamad Hasan and PAS’ Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.

“The PAS president and I signed a letter inviting PPBM based on the decision made at that meeting,” he said, referring to Abdul Hadi Awang.

MN was formally set up in September last year. Together with PPBM, it forms the loose coalition of Perikatan Nasional (PN), which runs the federal government with the support of Sarawak’s ruling GPS coalition.

Zahid’s announcement comes days after Mohamad said the party’s grassroots were “not comfortable and do not agree” with the idea of PPBM joining the pact.

“Many Umno members still remember the insults, disparaging and disrespectful remarks hurled at us (by PPBM leaders before GE14) and still feel hurt,” FMT quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

However, PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin had said his party wanted to join MN after being officially invited to do so.

Zahid’s tweet also comes two days after PAS confirmed it was part of a pro tem committee with PPBM to officially register PN as a coalition.

This followed Umno’s announcement that it would not be joining PN as it wanted to strengthen MN. - FMT