IT was a dalliance that over time appears to be coalescing into an alliance for the next general election. And as the days go by, it seems to pit Malay-Muslim Malaysians against their fellow Malaysians who follow other faiths.

Yet, there will be a cost for a nation that first gained independence 60 years ago and became Malaysia in 1963 when Malaya combined with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore, which left in 1965.

Today, it is clear that the Najib Razak-Abdul Hadi Awang very public love fest might return the prime minister to office on the strength of the Malay vote, who form more than half of the electorate and population.

But Umno’s partners in Barisan Nasional (BN) in the peninsula, such as MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the tiny PPP should be writing their political epitaphs.

BN’s racially based parties might see that race is their undoing in any seat where there are enough Malaysians of Chinese and Indian ethnicities to swing the vote. That much has been revealed in the general elections of 2008 and 2013.

These parties can only watch with concern today when PAS president Hadi thanked the BN government for giving it the opportunity to table its private member’s bill in the Dewan Rakyat last month to enhance punishments for shariah offences.

“We thank the government for this opportunity to table RUU355 (the bill). We will not forget this. May God make the path forward easier,” said Hadi in the closing speech of PAS’s muktamar in Alor Star, Kedah.

Umno had backed the bill although BN had dropped its endorsement before Hadi went to Parliament and took centre stage to extol his private member’s bill.

The controversial bill was tabled on April 6, after the government pushed it to the top of the Dewan Rakyat agenda. RUU 355 became the first private member’s bill in history to be tabled in Parliament by an opposition MP.

Can MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP still blame DAP for allowing Hadi to get his way? Will the voters swallow that line when PAS has tabled such laws in Kelantan where PAS is government and the other opposition parties are non-existent in the state legislature?

PAS has already named DAP as its main enemy, thrashed Amanah and Bersatu as nobodies and is now reviewing ties with PKR. In many ways, it behaves and sounds like a BN ally.

In short, it sounds like Umno, although always more Islamic than the dominant Malay party in BN. So where does that leave MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP? 

These parties say they bring balance to the coalition that has ruled the country since 1974, succeeding the Alliance of Umno, MCA and MIC which ruled from 1957. But what balance is there now?

From equal partners, they are now just bystanders watching Umno and PAS flirt with each other. For Umno and PAS, it could be their love song, for the other BN parties, their funeral dirge. – May 1, 2017.