DEPUTY Prime Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is confident that the agreement among political parties to establish the unity government will last long.

Zahid, who is also Umno president and chairman of Barisan Nasional (BN), said his party agreed to the cooperation as long as it had elements of defending Islam, Malay special rights, status of Bahasa Melayu as the national language and the sovereignty of the royal institution.

He said the elements were the prime concern of BN when negotiations were held with Pakatan Harapan (PH).

“When the agreement was signed by the various (political) parties, we never compromised on those elements, which form the foundation of the agreement not just for now, but for the long term,” he said on a special interview programme broadcast live on the Facebook and YouTube pages of NRChannel TV last night.

On December 16, PH, BN, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Warisan signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Putrajaya to form a unity government.

The MOU was signed by the respective secretaries-general, namely Saifuddin Nasution Ismail of PH, Zambry Abdul Kadir (BN), Masidi Manjun (GRS), Alexander Nanta Linggi (GPS) and Loretto Padua Jr (Warisan). 

Meanwhile, Zahid said following the general election results, Umno and BN were better off with PH for their long-term struggle.

“In short, the (Umno) Supreme Council decided that with PN (Perikatan Nasional), there would be more harm as they could contest in the same areas we (Umno) contest… areas with large numbers of Malay voters.

“We will surely fight in the same arena. From several projections we conducted, there is a huge potential for us to win back the areas in which we lost votes,” he added.

On being together with PH, he said coalitions in the unity government need to move forward and work as a team as long as they were united in thoughts, values and deeds.

Umno and BN’s aim is to create political stability and ensure the people’s prosperity within the new national political alignment, he said.

Zahid added that he would explain in further detail to Umno members about the new political landscape in the country through a policy speech during the Umno general assembly scheduled to take place from January 11 to 14. – Bernama, December 28, 2022.