AHMAD Zahid Hamidi is reappearing on the political scene less than two months after he decided to take leave from his duties as Umno president, in what observers said is an aggressive attempt to forge a more permanent PAS-Umno alliance.

The former deputy prime minister will take the stage with Perak PAS leader Misbahul Munir Masduki in a forum titled “Umno PAS cooperation: How far can it go?” today in Bagan Datuk, Perak, where he is MP and Umno division chief.

“This is part of my activities as the division chief of Bagan Datuk and as its MP,” Zahid told The Malaysian Insight.

“I took leave as Umno president but not as division chief and MP. I am not coming back as president but I never stopped working as a division chief and parliamentarian.”

Last December, Zahid said he was going on leave as Umno president. The duties of the party’s president are currently being handled by Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan.

This came about after Zahid was slapped with 45 charges of criminal breach of trust, money-laundering and abuse of power involving more than RM114 million.

He is out on bail. Following the court action, there were calls for Zahid to step down until the charges have been dealt with.

Zahid’s joint programme with PAS today is the second such programme between the two parties after former Umno president Najib Razak took the stage with Kedah PAS leader Zubir Ahmad in Langkawi recently.

Najib’s event was one of the rare instances in which PAS and Umno leaders have shared a stage outside of campaigning for each other in the five by-elections held since the 14th general election last May.

Both Zahid and Najib have strongly advocated for a formal political alliance between Umno and PAS as a way for the former ruling party to wrest back Putrajaya in the 15th general election. But PAS leaders have shied away from such a proposal and preferred their collaboration to remain on a case-by-case basis.

Think-tank Ilham Centre predicts that an Umno-PAS pact could help both parties win an additional 46 seats in GE15, by pooling their votes together behind a single candidate.

Political analyst Mazlan Ali said Najib and Zahid’s dialogue sessions are an attempt to deepen the cooperation between both parties at both the official and grassroots levels so as to forge a formal coalition like what PAS did with DAP and PKR in Pakatan Rakyat.

Currently, Umno and PAS are only working on case-by-case basis, such as when they decided to attend a rally to oppose Putrajaya’s attempt to sign a global treaty to end racial discrimination in Kuala Lumpur in early December.

Umno and PAS supporting each other’s candidate in the five by-elections since GE14 is also an ad hoc tie-up, said Mazlan, who lectures in political science at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

“The cooperation between them now is more on the scale of ta’awun,” said Mazlan, using the term PAS leaders have used to describe their temporary collaboration with Umno.

“It has not reached the level of tahaluf siyasi,” said Mazlan of the formal pact sealed between PAS and other PR parties between 2008 and 2015.

“So, the meetings and dialogue sessions being held now are to strengthen the cooperation so that it can be forged with an agreement that could form a new opposition coalition.”

Mazlan said the momentum for a formal pact between the two traditional rivals is building, especially after Barisan Nasional’s Cameron Highlands by-election victory, which was sealed by an increase in PAS votes.

“PAS and Umno think that they need to create an official opposition pact that can compete with PH and be a check to the government, especially for policies which they believe do not benefit Malays and the status of Islam.” – February 7, 2019.