Will there be PAS-Umno pact come GE14?

Who PAS – UMNO and why now need to be engaged to be married , when already married and have kids already

Analysts believe there will be more informal political engagements between the two rivals rather than realising a formal election pact

JOHOR BARU: The days of war between PAS and Umno are history but analysts doubted that both parties can reach an election pact to face the coming general election.

Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani, an analyst at public policy consulting firm Bower Group Asia Malaysia, said that the current sentiment indicates the two parties’ cooperation at its clearest point.

“I think this the clearest sign yet of the unity between Umno and PAS.

“We will see more strategic cooperation between the two parties but it’ll come short of forming formal pact between the parties,” Asrul said in a WhatsApp reply to Berita Daily.

He was commenting on PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s statement yesterday in Marang, conceding that his presence at a government programme with Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek was the beginning of mature politics between the party and the BN government.

Asrul also doubted that both the Malay-based parties warm relations will last, especially if PAS’ strength wanes due to the relationship.

“I cannot foresee the warm relationship to continue if PAS loses a big number of their seats in the general election,” he added.

Geostrategist Prof Dr Azmi Hassan also agreed that the signs sent by these two parties were pointing towards a form of political unity but stressed that both PAS and Umno were working on the aspect of unity of the Malay community rather than forming a political pact.

“With that note I doubt there will be an election pact for the next general election because the animosity is too deep, especially on the side of PAS members.

“But these so called mature politics demonstrated by Umno and PAS will surely pave the way for better support amongst the Malay voters and this will result better performances for both parties compared to GE13 results,” said Azmi.

Win-win situation

Secretary of Political, Security and International Affairs Cluster, National Professors Council, Prof Dr Abdul Halim Sidek meanwhile said that, from political observation, both parties have collaborated with each other without any official announcement.

He believed that there will be a form of collaboration between PAS and Umno to enter GE14 that will ensure a win-win situation for the two parties.

Abdul Halim said that the form of collaboration will be either formal or informal pact but will not be announced to the people as both parties would want to keep the cards close to themselves.

He said that a formal pact would see Umno-BN not putting forth a candidate at Opposition’s stronghold constituencies and let PAS battle it out with the Pakatan Harapan alliance.

“If it’s an informal pact, both parties wouldn’t attack one another during the campaign and ceramah, and would rather focus on their own strength.

“We also would not see any character assassination between these two parties which often happened in the past,” said Abdul Halim when contacted by Berita Daily.

Hadi yesterday attended the “Rig to Reef” launching programme with Ahmad Shabery in Marang where he is the MP.

“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be together in this programme which is most meaningful for everyone, for politicians to be able to return to mature politics.

“The cooperation today (between PAS and Umno) is mature politics, politics without any quarrel, politics that champion joint interests. In politics, one can have differing opinions but for any issue that involves joint interests, we must work together.

“In this aspect, I thank the government on behalf of the fishing community for implementing a project that is most important and integrated not only for the fishermen but also for the marine park that must be preserved in the best manner,” he was quoted as saying in Bernama.