PAS hits back at Umno for straying from Muafakat

PAS has hit back at Umno for allegedly straying from their Muafakat Nasional pact.

This is amid pressure from Umno for the Islamist party to dump Bersatu and Perikatan Nasional and focus on Muafakat instead.

Without mentioning names, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang said the party rejected those who deviated from Muafakat.

"PAS rejects cooperation that divides and strays from the original purpose of Muafakat," he said in a statement today.

At the same time, he touted cooperation with Bersatu and PN.

"PAS invites all Muslim groups to save the country in the new coalition, Periktan Nasional together with Bersatu, which centres around Islam, leadership and integrity.

"We are also together with non-Muslims, who are not extreme, to save the country without wasting time," said Abdul Hadi.

The party president's remarks were striking, given that Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had on Sunday called on PAS to honour the Muafakat charter.

Zahid last night also made veiled remarks aimed at PAS, calling on them not to repeat Semangat 46's mistakes by choosing bad allies for the next election.

This is after Umno officially decided to sever ties with Bersatu come the 15th general election.

PAS, however, had decided to continue being with Bersatu to strengthen PN for the polls.

Meanwhile, PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man was more forthcoming in his remarks.

He said Muafakat should no longer be seen from the lens of when it was an opposition group but through the current perspective of it being part of the PN government.

He said they had all agreed to form the PN government together and the question of party hoppers had not arisen at the time as they were all happy with the cooperation.

'Cooperation needed'

"So why are we no longer considerate and forgetting the basis of forming Muafakat when we were in the opposition and not being appreciative of the current situation where we have formed the government together?

"Do we feel we are great because we have millions of members so we feel the past is the same as the present?

"Are two parties stronger than three because we have more seats to contest and then dream that we will surely win all?" he said in a statement today.

His remarks refer to Umno's refusal to give way to Bersatu in election seat negotiations with plans to reclaim 15 seats of Umno MPs who defected to Bersatu.

Tuan Ibrahim said PAS' stand remained that a cooperation between all three Malay parties was the best.

He also reminded that both Umno and PAS had agreed to invite Bersatu into Muafakat.

"Unfortunately, (Bersatu's acceptance) letter has not been replied to to this day

"This is because Umno was disappointed that PN was registered as a coalition [...] plans to register Muafakat failed because the name had already been registered by others before," he said.

It should be noted that when Muafakat announced plans to formalise the pact, it was signed by both Umno and PAS and made no mention of Bersatu. - Mkini