The Malaysian Insight

UMNO and PAS will tomorrow formalise their cooperation by inking a unity charter, a day after celebrating their union by holding day-long talks and other events at Putra World Trade Centre, the Barisan Nasional lyncphin’s home.

The pact between the Malay parties comes after a split of four decades, with the intervening years filled with bitter fights, sharp rebukes, and even religious slurs.

With their pact, aimed at securing a larger portion of the Malay vote, set to be signed, sealed and delivered, today sees a sea of PAS green and Umno red at PWTC, which has the Islamist party’s “bulan” (moon) flag and Umno’s “Sang Saka Bangsa” flown together for the first time.

The events kicked off this morning with a programme by the parties’ Women wings. Scheduled are a “nasyid” competition, and a session by Puteri Umno and PAS’ Ameerah.

This afternoon, a talk organised by Umno’s information unit will be held, followed by a programme by the parties’ Youth wings.

The big guns will take to the stage this evening, with Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan and his PAS counterpart, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, due to give speeches.

For the main event tomorrow, the charter will be signed by Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and PAS’ Abdul Hadi Awang.

Four decades ago, the parties had partnered up. In the years that followed, between the bickering, they found time to discuss unity among Malay-Muslims.

The two sides’ last official cooperation was sealed in 1969, when PAS joined the unity government after that year’s general election. It then joined the Alliance in 1973, and contested the following year’s elections under the BN banner. The party won 14 parliamentary seats.

The relationship, however, ended acrimoniously in 1978.

After BN’s fall in last year’s general election, political needs brought Umno and PAS together once more.

While BN lost federal power, PAS maintained its hold on the Malay belt. The party kept its traditional stronghold of Kelantan, and even won back Terengganu – from Umno, ironically.

Realising that something needed doing for Umno to remain relevant, the party decided to woo PAS.

Both agreed to fight for Malay unity and to safeguard Islam, and called their cooperation “taawun siyasi”, or political understanding.

The alliance, launched informally during by-elections after the 14th general election, saw some results. Continuous tweaking led to wins in the Semenyih, Cameron Highlands and Rantau polls. By then, a firm decision was easy to make.

At the same time, the parties decided to touch base with the grassroots by highlighting issues affecting Malays. As a result, they were able to gather thousands for a rally against the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination at Dataran Merdeka.

The successes have bred confidence that by working together, the Umno-PAS tie-up can wrest Putrajaya in the next elections. Their target is to jointly win at least 125 parliamentary seats, and win back some states that BN lost last year.

With their charter, the former rivals now feel they are better equipped to achieve victory come GE15. – September 13, 2019.