The Malaysian Insight

AS PAS moves closer to a formal pact with Umno, members of its influential ulama wing have voiced concerns the Islamist party could be infected by the corruption and greed that plague its partner to be.

In view of such fears, the Dewan Ulama has echoed the youth wing’s assertion that PAS must be the driver if the two parties are to strike up a partnership.

Although the PAS ulama – Muslim scholars and jurists who set the party direction – fully endorsed a ta’awun siyasi (political cooperation) with Umno, it wants its leaders to set the tone and the terms of the concord.

“We’re already hearing about how our ustaz are starting to behave like Umno members, thinking of the contracts and projects they want to pursue,” said Mohamad Nazrin Abdul Karim, a Dewan Ulama delegate from the Petaling Jaya Utara division in Selangor.

“So we have to be careful with Umno. We have to make sure they follow our values instead of the other way around.”

The Dewan Ulama is considered the backbone of the party, said the new chief Dr Nik Zawawi Nik Salleh, and what it says usually goes in the party.

The ulama wing yesterday passed a resolution for the party to forge a political pact with Umno in the interests of expanding PAS’ influence and its brand of Islam.

The resolution also called for detailed guidelines on what the cooperation entails so that ties with Umno and other like-minded political parties are clearly defined.

The resolution to forge ties with Umno will be tabled at the muktamar, the party’s highest decision-making body.

While Kelantan delegate Yusof Hassan is for working with Umno, he warned his party colleagues not to let their guard down when dealing with their former nemesis.

This is because Umno betrayed the party back in the 1970s by triggering a vote of no-confidence in the Kelantan assembly and undermining the PAS state government.

As a result, PAS, which was then a part of the Umno-led Barisan Nasional, lost control of Kelantan.

“You have to be very careful with Umno because Umno has betrayed us. And we have to teach Umno to accept our Islamic struggle before we can cooperate with them,” said Yusof.

Others like Mohamad Rahmat was more upbeat about a tie-up between the country’s two largest Malay parties.

“My family is hardcore Umno and whenever I go back to vote, I always end up arguing with my siblings about who to vote for,” said the ulama delegate from Negri Sembilan.

“But after GE14, in our family’s WhatsApp group chat, my eldest brother announced that in GE15, we shall all vote for PAS,” said Mohamad.

In a press conference after the assembly, Zawawi said the pact could help both partners to capture more than 130 parliamentary seats in GE15.

This projection is based on the calculation of how many votes PAS and Umno stood to receive from Malays, and the votes they potentially could secure with the help of allies in east Malaysia.

“We have been in informal talks with both opposition and government parties in Sabah and Sarawak. We don’t want to announce them yet but we’ve been talking to them,” Zawawi said.

Zawawi also believes the PAS-Umno pact will win over Pakatan Harapan supporters who are unhappy with the ruling coalition.

“By our rough estimate, there are more than 130 parliamentary seats that we (PAS and Umno) could potentially win,” said Zawawi, the Pasir Puteh MP. – June 20, 2019.