KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — Umno does not see the DAP as its enemy, Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan of the Malay national party said.

The Umno deputy president told Mingguan Malaysia that it is DAP that is hostile towards his party.

He accused DAP of being power hungry while Umno and its Barisan Nasional (BN) partners are trying to liberate the country.

“DAP are the ones trying to be enemies with us because we were established before them, we’re not enemies with anyone. 

“We formed Umno and Party Perikatan to liberate the country but DAP is trying to grab power. If they do so we must be wary and have our own approach to handling them,” he told the Sunday edition of Utusan Malaysia in an interview published today.

Mohamad, better known as Tok Mat, is also the BN election chief for the ongoing Johor election where 56 seats are up for grabs. 

He told the newspaper that he hopes his coalition will get at least a simple majority, but is still cautious as there could be a potential swing in voter support either way seeing as there are 756,000 new voters to the electoral roll, after the automatic voter registration system kicked in.

He dismissed allegations that court cases would be dropped against Umno leaders in the “court cluster” if the BN wins the March 12 vote, saying they were false. He added that is such allegations were true, the charges would already have been withdrawn under the leadership of current Prime Minister is Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Umno is contesting 37 out of the 56 Johor state seats, the most in the BN with MCA contesting in 15 and MIC fielding candidates in the remaining four seats.

The Umno “court cluster” refers to the party’s leaders who have been charged in court with an assortment of criminal offences including corruption, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering. Among those on trial are incumbent party president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his predecessor Datuk Seri Najib Razak who were formerly deputy prime minister and prime minister respectively.

In the interview, Mohamad also weighed in on Umno’s cooling relations with its Muafakat Nasional (MN) partner, PAS after the Islamist party leader Datuk Seri Hadi Awang called Umno a lame duck that had broken its legs during the 14th General Elections that PAS had taken in and nursed back to health.

Mohamad said MN was formed to give the Malay-Muslims a common platform to fight for their rights which were supposedly being threatened, and not for politics.

“That’s why I don’t agree with MN being registered as a political party. When people say MN is doomed because Umno and PAS can’t cooperate, I say this is not the issue.

“We only signed the agreement to unite the Malay-Muslims so if both parties aren’t there it’s alright as long as the spirit and platform exist,” he was quoted as saying.

Early voting in the Johor election is this Tuesday while polling is on Saturday. More than 2.59 million voters are eligible to cast their ballot in this state election.