PAS has always fared poorly when it takes on Umno on its own in general elections, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but any decision by the Islamist party to work with Umno could force three-cornered fights and be disastrous for Malaysia’s opposition.

“PAS will break up Barisan Nasional’s enemies if it forces three-cornered fights by wanting to contest in 80 seats. PAS will lose and drag the other opposition parties down with it. And Umno will win because the opposition is split,” the former prime minister said in a blog post in chedet.cc today.

“So, directly, PAS is working hard and spending a large amount of money to help BN and Najib (Prime Minister Najib Razak) win. People are saying that PAS under Hadi’s leadership is actually supporting the leadership of Najib. It is not unreasonable, it is actually true,” he said.

In an interview on Sunday, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang told Mingguan Malaysia that his party was willing to work with Umno on specific issues, following the successful tabling of RUU355 on April 6.

According to Dr Mahathir, PAS has never fared well whenever it faced BN alone.

“PAS’s highest win in Parliament was 27 when it worked with PKR and DAP in Barisan Alternatif in 1999. PAS, however, only managed to win seven seats in 2004 when DAP opted out of Barisan Alternatif.

“In the 1978, 1982 and 1986 elections, PAS only managed to win five, five and one seat only when it fought alone,” said the 92-year-old.

And when it joined Pakatan Rakyat in 2008 and 2013, PAS managed to win 23 and 21 seats respectively, said Dr Mahathir.

He said PAS would not win more than 15 seats out of the 80 contested seats, and despite PAS knowing this, it still wanted to contest the seats.

Dr Mahathir went on to say that the establishment of PAS was a disaster as it tore the Malays apart.

“Even though the Malays are the majority, the Malays cannot become the majority any more because PAS is around.

“Because all Malays are Muslims, the establishment of PAS not only breaks the unity of Malays but also that of Muslims.

“In PAS’s efforts to garner support, they are willing to ostracise the Malays that are not with them. This has resulted in social problems among Malay families because there are PAS members who do not recognise the marriage of the parents.

“Till this day ,there are still Malay families who refuse to pray together.” – April 18, 2017.