The announcement by Acting UMNO President Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan that the party and PAS would form a committee and opposition caucus in Parliament finally confirms—despite years of denials by leaders from both sides—that the two are in an alliance.
Mohamad even went as far as to describe the alliance as a “marriage”. I had declared them “married” as far back as in the Seri Setia by-election in August 2018 after all the “courtship” that emerged after the fall of Pakatan Rakyat. But with the revelation of the deals that PAS leadership took with UMNO involving monetary compensation, it seems that this is less a “marriage” but a commercial arrangement involving a willing donor and willing recipient.
After months, if not years of colluding and enabling each other—UMNO and PAS are now essentially one and the same.
It is unclear what benefit, if any, the new arrangement will bring to the wider Malay community given that both parties have lately seemed more concerned with jockeying for political power, justifying alleged past wrongdoings and attempting to stir communal feelings.
The two parties have only provided tired rhetorics without any clear alternatives, and have whittled down to become more like regional rather than national parties.
Their former leaders, in contrast, including Dato’ Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, Dr Burhanuddin Helmy, Dato’ Ustaz Fadzil Noor and Tuan Guru Dato’ Bentara Setia Nik Abdul Aziz Mat, were towering Malaysians and Malays who upheld not only multiracial cooperation, but also the highest standards of integrity in public life.
The actions of today’s crop of UMNO and PAS leaders, as well as their so-called “marriage”, mean that both parties have turned their backs on the spirit as well as legacies of their former icons.
NIK NAZMI NIK AHMAD
KEADILAN CHIEF ORGANISING SECRETARY
KEADILAN CENTRAL LEADERSHIP COUNCIL MEMBER
SETIAWANGSA MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
