Time for PAS to pick its partner for GE15

COMMENTARY, Sept 27 — The PAS marriage with Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) is on the rocks as both differ on their political approaches and enemies for the 15th general election (GE15).

This is a situation that may end in a break-up if neither side compromises.

Lately, there seems to be a rift between leaders of both parties, as they cross paths in identifying which party or parties were their enemies. It came to the stage that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin asked the Islamist party to state whether they were together or not.

If the rift becomes a clash, their marriage may end just before GE15 and both parties may end up losers.

Muhyiddin, the president of the Bersatu, was not feeling good over rumours that PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang met Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi last week.

PAS was also seen as distancing itself from Bersatu when it decided to use its own logo for GE15 and admitted to trying to revive the Muafakat Nasional pact with Umno.

The temperature rose when Muhyiddin announced that PN’s enemy was Umno-Barisan Nasional, which PAS countered by saying the enemy was not BN but Pakatan Harapan (PH).

Leaders of both parties then met last night to iron out matters as the two still needed each other in the current political landscape.

Bersatu needs PAS as the latter has the election machinery and reach in all Malay-majority seats while PAS needs the former for funding support.

The two are also not in agreement on seats allocations as each is demanding safe seats in Malay areas.

The verbal exchanges between leaders of both parties have also caused upset among the two.

PAS is now getting friendly with Umno in its attempt to revive the abandoned MN as it knows the upcoming GE is different from the previous ones.

And its experience with Bersatu in the Melaka and Johor state elections resulted in disaster as even its own members and supporters abandoned the party.

To get Umno to agree to revive MN is no small task as the Islamist party had abandoned the alliance, leading to demands for PAS to abandon Bersatu for this to continue.

PAS is truly in a Catch-22 position as its game of “political masquerade” has come to an end and it can no longer get the full trust of either Bersatu or Umno.