'Umno in murky waters of bribery' - Hadi on why PAS is picking PN

 

It appears that the Umno-PAS political cooperation has reached a point of no return as the Islamist party’s president Abdul Hadi Awang divulges reasons why the pact fell through.

Hadi had likened the Muafakat Nasional collaboration to consuming “unripe durian”, which could cause stomach discomfort.

While disclosing reasons why PAS chose to work with Perikatan Nasional (PN) instead of BN, he said his party finds it burdensome to accept Umno, which he deemed to be a “murky” party.

“We (PAS) are not with BN because there it is still murky… the confusion is that there are still bribe takers. And there are those who are greedy and wish to govern again.

“(Although) we have just helped to bring down Pakatan Harapan,” he said while delivering a weekly lecture in Marang, Terengganu, today.

Hadi said this while explaining PAS’ choice to strengthen ties with PN – which is made up of PAS, Bersatu and Gerakan – over MN with Umno.

Yesterday, the Marang MP said his party is also finalising seat negotiations with PN.

This means PAS is set to clash with Umno-BN in at least 27 parliamentary seats, most of which are in Kelantan and Terengganu, in the looming general election.

PAS had previously insisted several times that it wishes to defend the “ummah unity agenda” by reconciling BN and PN, which are at loggerheads.

At the moment, he said, PAS wishes to close ranks with PN to fight “bribe givers and takers”.

However, Hadi admitted that Umno-BN would be a better alliance colleague for PAS to achieve an easy victory as the coalition has many supporters.

“But we can’t be impetuous. Like durian – don’t pluck it too quickly. If it’s unripe, your stomach will get bloated.

“Let it ripen properly first. I know there are PAS members who are impatient. They are already ‘drooling’.

“The durian is still unripe… you have to be patient,” he said while making a comparison.

During the lecture, Hadi also raised the issue of oil royalty in PAS-led states as well as the alleged water woes in Kelantan, aside from alleging that BN had failed to carry out its responsibilities in Islam despite having governed the country for over five decades.

He also asked for the Kelantanese to be patient, which they have been doing all this time despite being “abused” by BN for years.

“In Umno, there are still people who are still ‘gelenyar’ and not awake yet. The problem is that there is turbidity.

“It’s not that we want to be hostile (with Umno-BN). We’re not hostile, but because of some turbidity, so we postpone it by taking an approach to clarify the situation.

‘Many persuaded me to join BN’

In addition, he also explained why PAS refused to collaborate with Harapan.

Among them, Hadi claimed that Harapan shows support for LGBT activities, has communist factions and betrayed Muslims.

“In Harapan, there is DAP, there are Malay parties, a faction that rejects Islam, an LGBT faction, a traitor faction and a faction that gives and receives bribery.

“There is also a communist faction, and those who reject the king,” he claimed.

Hadi added that Harapan is vocal against corrupt practices, especially those involving Umno, but “remains silent when there’s disobedience to God”.

“They speak about fighting corruption but they receive donations (from) those who gave inducement. They don’t fight against LGBT, they don’t reprimand those who disobey God’s commands, they just keep quiet.” - Mkini