The Malaysian Insight

PAS must ditch Perikatan Nasional if it wants to work with Umno in the next general election, said Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. 

He said that talks had started between the two parties but there were some conditions to be fulfilled before they could officially work together. 

“The main condition is that PAS must leave PN. We have given PAS time to decide on this,” he said after chairing a meeting of Umno leaders at the World Trade Centre today.

Previously Zahid had said that there were three conditions PAS should fulfil if it wanted to work with Umno.

The three conditions were that PAS must leave the PN coalition, sever political ties with Bersatu, and officially announce that they are 100% separated from PN and Bersatu.

Responding to this, PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man had said that Umno should not be imposing impossible conditions if it wanted to cooperate with other parties in the next general election.

Tuan Ibrahim also said PAS would meet with the Umno leadership to discuss the conditions set by Zahid.

PAS and Umno had entered into a collaboration to form Muafakat Nasional in September 2019 when the two Malay parties were in opposition and when Pakatan Harapan was still the government.

After the Sheraton Move, PAS together with Bersatu and two parties in Sabah formed PN, led by Muhyiddin Yassin.

Since then, the relationship between PAS and Umno began to strain and the cooperation in MN ended.

Over the past few months, both parties have been working hard to revive the pact, including through meetings between presidents of both parties. – October 4, 2022.