Umno must be careful of ‘repeat divorcee’ PAS, says Puad

PETALING JAYA: An Umno Supreme Council member has urged the party to be cautious about forming a new political alliance with PAS, which he described as a “repeat divorcee”.

Rengit assemblyman Puad Zarkashi said those who “love to marry and then divorce” tend to be troublesome, referring to PAS’s recent decision to end its pact with Bersatu.

“In politics, there are parties that easily ‘marry’ others but just as easily divorce them if their objectives aren’t achieved. Umno must be careful,” he said in a Facebook post.

Umno and PAS, the country’s largest Malay-Muslim parties, used to be allies under the Muafakat Nasional (MN) pact that was formalised in 2019, when Pakatan Harapan led the federal government.

However, the alliance fell apart after PAS formed Perikatan Nasional with Bersatu the following year.

Speculation over a possible revival of the pact surfaced after PAS ended its alliance with Bersatu.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has ruled out reviving MN, saying his party has no intention of resurrecting the alliance in any form as it has “closed the book on it”.

But Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh said the cooperation could be revived under a different pact, as the name isn’t important, what’s more important is uniting Malay-Muslims.