PETALING JAYA: Umno is attempting to create fissures in Pakatan Rakyat by baiting PAS on the issue of cooperation, said an academic.
“This is one of Umno’s political tricks. Umno knows that if PAS takes the bait, it will die in seats which the party won on non-Malay support like in Kedah,” Abdul Aziz Bari told FMT.
“In other words, Umno is using PAS to cripple Pakatan because Pakatan is dependent on PAS,” he added.
According to him, Umno was profiting from these political polemics compared to PAS which is still obsessed with its “musuh dalam selimut” (enemy within) thinking.
Abdul Aziz said that Umno was using this to distract the people from the issues at hand, economy and corruption, which Pakatan is constantly raising.
He pointed out that it would be difficult for cooperation between the two parties to materialise because PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat was against it.
But from Umno's perspective, this issue was beneficial to them.
"This issue is capable of switching public attention away from the economy and corruption which are important to Pakatan. It’s worked well for Umno.
“Say what you want but Umno has won; just watching PAS scrambling to look for the enemy within says much,” added the International Islamic University law lecturer.
Abdul Aziz also agreed with PAS' Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad that those who had met with Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria should be sacked from the party.
“I think it is stupid if PAS follows Umno and I agree with Khalid that the leaders who met with Harussani should be sacked. These leaders have clearly gone against party interests,” he said.
Harussani, who offered himself as a mediator to the PAS-Umno unity talks, said several PAS and Umno leaders met him to discuss the issues and asked his views on how to unify the two rivals.
’Cooperation could reduce differences’
Meanwhile, Transparency International (Malaysia) president Ramon Navaratnam said cooperation between the two parties could work if the aim was to improve unity among communities in the country.
“Any form of cooperation between political parties is always good but the aim must be to enhance existing unity. Let’s just hope that this is not a political trick.
“If everyone is supportive of a one community, irrespective of race and religion, then such cooperation would be fruitful. It would also reduce the bickering between the two parties.” he said.
Navaratnam warned however that cooperation cannot just tout Malays and Islam because then it would have negative implications on other parties and the Barisan Nasional concept.
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