THE Sungai Kandis by-election has shown that Umno and PAS can work together, said newly elected Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

While admitting that Barisan Nasional was not expected to win the by-election, it was a litmus test for the Umno-PAS cooperation.

“For the first time ever, the BN pre-council meeting included PAS, and when we walked out of the Dewan Rakyat last Monday, PAS followed suit.

“This shows that PAS and Umno can cooperate as both parties fight to uphold Islam.

“When PAS decided not to field anyone for Sungai Kandis, we knew we had passed the first test. But there’s still a long way to go in our cooperation with PAS,” said Ismail, who is also Umno Selangor chairman.

Ismail said this during a Facebook Live interview on Umno Online with Sungai Kandis BN candidate Lokman Noor Adam. The hour-long session was moderated by former Special Affairs Department (Jasa) director Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz. At the height of the programme, there were some 270 live views on Facebook.

The Bera MP said the Sungai Kandis by-election also marked a new strategy for Umno in fielding a non-Selangor leader in a Selangor seat.

Lokman, who was born in Johor, was picked by Umno to contest in the state by-election.

“We want to change this culture of only allowing a local to contest a particular seat. The opposition (Pakatan Harapan) had done it many times already and in the is the new spirit of Umno, where the party’s interest comes first,” said the former rural and regional development minister.

He said employing this strategy was part of a transformation process for Umno after losing GE14.

Lokman, meanwhile, said the former Sungai Kandis assemblyman, Shuhaimie Shafiei, was also from another state, Perak.

“Pakatan has long done this, too. Dr Mahathir Mohamad is not from Langkawi and neither is Wan Azizah Wan Ismail from Pandan. Even the Kota Raja MP Mohamad Sabu is not from there,” said Lokman.

“So, it’s really a non-issue. What is important is I can help Malays who have been left disappointed by Pakatan’s unfulfilled promises after the election.”

He said Malays had become unhappy over issues concerning Malay rights, the importance of Bahasa Malaysia and how Islam has been treated after Pakatan took over the federal government.

Lokman said that Malays were also unhappy that a majority of leaders in the Pakatan government were non-Muslims, unlike BN’s set-up.

The Sungai Kandis by-election will see a three-cornered fight between Lokman, PKR’s Zawawi Ahmad Mughni and independent K. Murthy.

This is the first by-election following the general election on May 9. The seat fell vacant after assemblyman Shuhaimie Shafiei died on July 2. – July 22, 2018.