WORKING in Umno may be the quickest way back to Putrajaya but it is a path strewn with pitfalls, said a Selangor DAP assemblyman.

“DAP has gone down this road before when it worked with Bersatu. But look at what has happened after we reached Putrajaya,” Balakong assemblyman Wong Siew Ki told The Malaysian Insight in an interview.

As Bersatu is also an Umno splinter party, Wong said that the end result could be the same.

The first term Selangor lawmaker was commenting on the ongoing debate on whether Pakatan Harapan (PH) should work with Barisan Nasional (BN) in the upcoming national elections.

Although Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had said that the party would not work with PKR or DAP, a leaked audio showed that he was on speaking terms with PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.

While Zahid and Anwar have denied the speaking on the audio, the issue has continued to plague both parties as Perikatan Nasional (PN) leaders play up their “friendliness”.

For Wong, an Umno-DAP cooperation is unfeasible as the two parties are poles apart.

“Umno is a right-wing party while DAP is on the centre left. So, how do we govern and formulate policies together?” said Wong.

“We could split again after becoming government, just like Bersatu,” she added.

She said that the “cooperation” was also difficult as Umno is split.

“Umno is not united now. They have many factions. Which faction will cooperate with us?”

But Wong believes that both parties can work on common issues as DAP will not oppose for the sake of opposing.

Using the Covid-19 pandemic as an example, Wong said that DAP will not go against a good policy to vaccinate Malaysians as it will benefit everyone.

“We won’t shout, ‘No, we don’t want to get vaccinated!’, we won’t do that for the sake of it.”

Another example, said Wong, was the no-confidence vote against Perak Mentri Besar Ahmad Faisal Azumu last December.

Ahmad, said Wong, was performing poorly and had to be replaced and DAP, with PH, decided to support Umno’s no confidence vote against the MB.

Umno leaders have so far raised the possibility of a collaboration with DAP not to contest in the general election, but after the polls to form a government.

DAP’s organising secretary and Seremban MP Anthony Loke said it is highly unlikely Umno and DAP could forge any partnership in the next general election.

Yet, Loke also admitted that political parties realise that none of them can form a post-election government alone.

Party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has also ruled out any political cooperation between DAP and Umno in GE15.

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/no-cooperation-umno-until-daps-committee-decides-otherwise-says-guan-eng

Lim said the DAP central committee will have to make a decision first, and until then, any cooperation can only be limited to restoring Parliament sittings or for the people’s welfare such as allocations for opposition constituencies. – April 14, 2021.