PAS will fight Umno for Pahang and Perlis if the Malay party wants to clash with the Islamist party for Terengganu and Kelantan in the general election, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said.

The PAS deputy president said the party machinery is gearing up for three-cornered fights.  

“In the 14th general election, PAS won Kelantan and Terengganu while Umno won Pahang and Perlis.

“If they (Umno) continues to fight PAS in Terengganu and Kelantan, then God willing, we will fight them in Pahang and Perlis,” he said at the launch of the party’s election machinery in Kuala Nerus, Terengganu last night.

Tuan Ibrahim appeared to have had a change of mind since last month, when he said PAS must work with Umno to keep 27 seats that are at risk of being lost to Pakatan Harapan in the case of split votes.

He had said then that PAS and Umno needed to rekindle their partnership via Muafakat Nasional (MN).

At the party’s annual conference earlier this month, PAS had approved a motion to unify the core Malay political parties to prevent split votes while rejecting cooperation with Pakatan Harapan.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, however, had announced that the party leadership would not continue negotiations with PAS while accusing the latter of lacking true commitment to the MN pact.

Zahid said stability, confidence and cooperation could not be established in the partnership because of PAS’ relationship with Bersatu, which he said wished to destroy Umno.

Tuan Ibrahim yesterday said PAS had never been afraid of standing against Umno.

However, he said such encounters would benefit neither party, which was why PAS continued to offer to work with Umno.

“In politics there are challenges. But we don’t want to fight each other,” Tuan Ibrahim said.

“In the end the country and our strengths are affected by the fighting.

“We have to be cautious when making decisions. We will wait for the leadership to decide.” – September 23, 2022.