UMNO does not need to give up seats to PAS in the next general election as the Islamist party has refused to do any favour for its Muafakat Nasional (MN) partner, said Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

He said a case in point was PAS’ failure to appoint Umno assemblymen to the state exco in Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah – the three states it governs with Umno as an ally.

In an interview with Insight Talk, the country’s longest serving MP said he had tried to broach the issue in MN meetings.

“This matter was brought up in meetings but they did not give way. That is why in my earlier statement, I stressed on sincerity,” he said.

“If we want to cooperate, we need to work as a family but now it is not like that.”

He also slammed PAS’ poor record in Kelantan, which the party has governed for 30 years.

“What’s so great about PAS? Thirty years have passed and the water in the state is still not clean,” said the Kelantan prince, referring to the lack of clean water for the state’s residents.

Tengku Razaleigh, known to his constituents as Ku Li, has been Gua Musang MP for more than 10 terms since 1975.

PAS in its muktamar last week said its political partners must give way to enable straight fights for its candidates for seats in Kelantan, Kedah and Terengganu during election time.

Its youth chief, Ahmad Fadhil Shaari said this is because PAS has allowed its allies to contest freely in the Sabah elections.

At the same event, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang said the party would take the majority of the seats in its stronghold three states although discussions between the allies about seat allocation have yet to take place.

Tengku Razaleigh said the statements of PAS leaders suggested a lack of cooperation between the country’s two largest Malay-Muslim political parties.

He said the distribution of seats must be decided together by the partners in the spirit of MN.

“How are we going to give way; what is there to give?

“They have Kelantan.They have the majority of the seats. Do they want the world? Where is the cooperation? That is why I asked, what is there to cooperate if they want everything?”

MN is a political cooperation between Umno and PAS, the two biggest Malay parties, that was officially established last September.

This is in preparation for the general election where the parties hope they can jointly win over the Malay support and form the government.

Last month, another Malay party, Bersatu, also joined MN.

The three Malay parties form the pillars of the Perikatan Nasional pact, which ousted Pakatan Harapan in March.

Meanwhile, Tengku Razaleigh said he will not be giving up his seat to other parties and stressed that Umno will take back seats they have lost to Bersatu by way of post-GE14 defections.

“I will of course fight in my seat or someone from Umno will replace me. But we are not giving them away, including seats won by Umno MPs who later joined Bersatu. We will take them back,” he said. – September 20, 2020.