Malaysia’s Bersatu, PAS open to UMNO’s ‘grand collaboration’ pitch but question its role in unity government

Zahid’s proposal – which came at the end of the party’s four-day assembly at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur – was overwhelmingly accepted by UMNO delegates, who stood up in support of it. 

“With this grand collaboration, we will set aside our differing (political) stripes for the sake of the Malays and Islam under one roof together,” Zahid said on Saturday. 

“Prime Minister (Anwar), please don’t be worried. I don’t have any agenda to threaten the unity government, but this is just to translate UMNO’s sincerity to include all Malay and Islamic parties and put them under one roof for the sake of the Malay agenda.”

Zahid’s proposal comes amid renewed calls to revive the Muafakat Nasional (MN) collaboration – an electoral pact between UMNO and PAS in 2019 that fell apart when PAS and Bersatu formed Perikatan Nasional.

Zahid, however, said that UMNO rejected this call as MN had been registered as a non-governmental organisation.   

When asked if his latest idea for the “grand collaboration” was similar to MN, Zahid said it went “beyond it”. 

“This is not about being racial or marginalising other communities,” he claimed, adding that there had been “informal discussions” with various other parties prior to the Saturday announcement. 

UMNO information chief Azalina Othman Said also said the proposal is not a political coalition, reported the New Straits Times.