Limits of race, religion in the ultimate demise of Muafakat Nasional

 

ADUN SPEAKS | Two important meetings have been postponed due to the fear of the spread of Covid-19; the meetings between PAS and Umno, and the Umno supreme council.

This is an acceptable reason.

However, having the meetings or not is not going to resolve the underlying tensions between PAS and Umno on the one hand and the subsequent debates in the Umno supreme council.

It is clear that all the gung-ho talk of PAS-Umno unity in Muafakat Nasional (Muafakat) seems to have slowly dissipated.

Perhaps the collapse of this synthetic unity was just only a matter of time.

The problem is not Muafakat, but the participation of both the parties in the Perikatan Nasional government - the coalition that took power in a backdoor putsch early this year.

PAS, after it embraced Bersatu in PN, has slowly and surely distanced itself from Muafakat or for that matter, Umno.

Muafakat remains merely on paper that there is no brotherhood to champion matters based on race and religion, the ultimate weapons of Umno and PAS.

PAS, having tasted not just federal power but also the spoils of the office, has clearly eclipsed Umno in the PN government, despite having a low number of MPs.

In fact, despite the camaraderie based on race and religion, PAS has distanced itself from Umno, and Umno, despite its sizeable number of MPs, seems to have lost out to the cunning fox, PAS.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin seems to have emerged the ultimate puppeteer in the divide and rule game.

It is because of PAS’ support for Bersatu that Muhyiddin can withstand the pressures exerted by Umno for political rewards.

I doubt that he is going to order a cabinet reshuffle, given the fact that the ever-present ubiquitous Covid-19 can be invoked.

Even if Umno has strength in the number of MPs, there is a feeling in the PN circles that Umno’s threat to pull out of the government or alternatively support the prime ministership of Anwar Ibrahim might be bluff.

The attempt by the former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohammed to join forces with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to pass a motion of non-confidence against Muhyiddin could be just a red herring to thwart Anwar chances of becoming a prime minister with the backing of Umno MPs.

Muafakat was formed when Pakatan Harapan was in power with its struggle predicated to bring down the legitimately elected government.

To a certain extent, Muafakat was effective in fuelling the rise of the backdoor government.

With Harapan reduced to the level of opposition, it was just a matter of time that the primary basis for the formation of Muafakat cracked.

Umno might be opportunistic but is nowhere compared to the slimy and scheming PAS.

More than this, there is a realisation among Umno members that PAS is untrustworthy and deviant on political principles.

So much for race and religion in bringing together Umno and PAS.

Crass materialism and opportunism have worked in myriad ways to undermine their ties.

Material reality has ultimately rendered insignificant ties based on primordial sentiments of race and religion.

Maybe there is thinking in PAS’ circles that the material world is equally important or more to the other world.

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P RAMASAMY is the state assemblyperson for Perai. He is also deputy chief minister (II) of Penang. - Mkini

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.