THE question of whether to cooperate with Umno will no doubt dominate this year’s PAS congress in Kuala Terengganu, but the Islamists will have to tread carefully as it is not yet a done deal, said analysts.

“Before the 14th general election (GE14), PAS was very confident that it could win the three-cornered fights, but the results show that it could survive only in the Malay-majority seats of Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu,” said Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Dr Mazlan Ali.

“PAS lost many seats in Selangor, Perak, and was almost wiped out in the south.

“As such, the party has to consider another approach,” said the political analyst, who is a PAS member.

Although PAS surprised many by winning 18 federal and 90 state seats in the last elections, the party was nearly wiped out on the west coast.

PAS’ 18 federal seats came from Kedah (3), Kelantan (9) and Terengganu (6). In Selangor, PAS managed to hang on to one state seat in GE14, compared with the 13 it won in the previous national election.

Before opening formal negotiations to enter a working pact with Umno, said Mazlan, the party leaders must first convince mid-level and grassroots leaders, said Mazlan. 

“They have been sworn enemies for a long time and for anything concrete to begin, PAS must first smoothen the ground,” said Mazlan, on the Dewan Ulama’s “neutral” statements at its meeting yesterday.

Dewan Ulama chief Dr Mahfodz Mohamed had said the party would work with any party that united Malay-Muslims.

However, at a press conference later, Mahfodz was non-committal when asked if it specifically meant working with Umno.

Universiti Malaya’s Prof Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi said party president Abdul Hadi Awang would use the congress as a platform to justify the need to cooperate with a long-time rival.
“Hadi will have employ the narrative that Islam is threatened under the new Pakatan Harapan government to get support for working with Umno.

“He will talk about the party’s struggles and its contributions to state and nation before attempting to convince the grassroots why it needs to work with Umno,” said Awang Azman, who teaches Malay Ethnic studies in Universiti Malaya.

Mazlan said the appointments of Tommy Thomas as the attorney-general and Richard Melanjum as chief justice would be held up as proof that Malay-Muslims were losing ground in the country.

“And this is a narrative that could convince PAS to work with Umno as both fight on similar grounds,” said Mazlan.

“Of late, Umno leaders have been consistent about working with PAS. And while PAS voters were reluctant to support the Umno candidate in the Sungai Kandis by-election, Umno went all out to back the PAS candidate in the Seri Setia by-election.

“Umno’s backing was instrumental to PAS doubling its votes despite the lower turnout. 

“But before anything can be finalised, there is still some convincing to do at this year’s muktamar.”

Incidentally, Umno Youth chief Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki was a guest at the opening of the PAS Youth meeting yesterday.

Similarly, Umno president Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is expected to attend the opening of PAS’ conference of delegates tomorrow. –  September 14, 2018.