Zahid Spurns Insincere Call By Pas To Revive Muafakat Alliance

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Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has appeared to spurn a PAS effort to revive an alliance with his party.CYBERJAYA: Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has described as insincere a PAS proposal to revive Muafakat Nasional, an electoral alliance formed in 2019 between the country’s two biggest Malay parties.
Zahid said that the Islamic party had not only withdrawn from the alliance, but had also violated the agreement they had.
“The stabbed us in the back. I don’t think their offer is sincere,” he told reporters after a Risda event here today.
The PAS proposal was raised on Feb 16 by the party’s spiritual adviser, Hashim Jasin, who said he was confident that informal talks had been held between leaders of the two parties to revive the alliance.
Hashim also said that PAS would not close the door to any form of cooperation with Umno to revive MN even though Umno Supreme Council leader Puad Zarkashi said his party had closed the book on the matter.
MN was established in September 2019, aimed at uniting the Malay-Muslim electorate, when both parties were in the opposition after Pakatan Harapan won power in the 2018 general election.
Last week, Bersatu information chief Razali Idris said that PAS has not discussed with his party any plans to revive MN with Umno.
PAS attempts to bring Bersatu into the Muafakat Nasional arrangement of 2020 caused ties with Umno to become strained.
In March 2022, Zahid gave a clear indication of the future of the MN alliance when he appeared to sound its death knell, saying that political cooperation between the two parties should be kept “in a folder that need not be reopened”. - FMT

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