KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today said the PAS leadership appeared to have lost its civility since joining Perikatan Nasional, in a rebuttal of the former ally’s latest criticism of his party.
He suggested this could be due to the negative influence of the Islamist party’s partners in PN, an apparent reference to the Umno offshoot, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.
“The PAS leadership seems to be deviating more from values of noble politics since joining PN. This might be influenced by the unhealthy political culture and deceitfulness of its new partners.
“It seems only PAS grassroots members can keep the party from drifting further away. The grassroots members must work together to give Barisan Nasional a victory this GE15,” he said on Facebook.
Earlier in his post, he addressed PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang’s claim that Umno was planning to cooperate with Pakatan Harapan (PH) to secure more seats.
Ahmad Zahid urged PAS to stop itself from being used as Bersatu’s vehicle to attack Umno, and pointed out that it was Bersatu and not Umno that kept reaching to PH for a political cooperation in the 15th general election.
He pointed out that PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin openly invited PH and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Gerakan Tanah Air to cooperate, but this eventually failed because their interests did not align.
“So, why is the Umno leadership accused by PAS leaders of wanting to cooperate with PH?
“The PAS members are lucky that the PN chairman’s trick fell through otherwise they would have returned to the DAP’s lap,” he said.
Despite being a formal member of PN, PAS had continued to flirt with Umno on a possible political cooperation for GE15.
This ended when Hadi finally committed his party to PN and Bersatu last month, after which he began attacking Umno as corrupt.
Earlier today, Hadi revealed that his party decided to side with PN because Umno allegedly had too many “power-crazy” individuals willing to pawn their religion.
