PN will fall apart after GE15, predicts Isham

 

Bersatu and PAS will enter GE15 under the Perikatan Nasional banner.

PETALING JAYA: An Umno Supreme Council member predicts Perikatan Nasional will face many problems after the next general election and eventually break up.

“There are many in PN who are party hoppers, from Umno, from Pakatan Harapan, so they will face problems (because) they can only rely on PAS,” said Isham Jalil.

“If Bersatu loses many seats this time around, PAS will see that they are tainted because of their association with those who have betrayed (the people’s mandate), and end that alliance,” he told FMT in an interview.

Isham said PAS had already suffered losses in the Melaka and Johor state elections while with Perikatan Nasional, and he believed a loss in GE15, may see them ditch their PN partner Bersatu.

Isham Jalil.

He said if this happens, Bersatu may break up, just as another Umno splinter, Semangat 46, had come apart in 1996 when many Semangat 46 leaders and members including Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Rais Yatim rejoined Umno.

“I’m not looking down on them (Bersatu), but based on the current trend, I don’t think the people will support party hoppers.”

Isham said that it was possible, after Bersatu is dissolved, that Umno may allow former Bersatu members to return to Umno. “Perhaps they will realise that they must dissolve their party to return.

“And if they do not like Umno, they can join PAS,” he said when asked how Umno would seek to consolidate Malay support after GE15.

Isham said Umno has always wanted to “unite the ummah”, and they had actually achieved this through the formation of Muafakat Nasional (MN), the pact it had with PAS in the aftermath of GE14.

“But in less than a year, PAS formed PN with Bersatu and this was problematic because our (Umno) grassroots cannot accept the traitors (in Bersatu).”

“When people betray us, how can we be forced to accept them? If we ask PAS if they can accept Amanah, they cannot.”

Umno has said it was open to working with PAS on the condition that it severs ties with Bersatu, which the Islamic party has refused to do.

Isham added there were too many Malay parties and that the best way to unite the community was for the smaller Malay parties to dissolve and join either Umno or PAS. - FMT