KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 ― Umno risks alienating its former allies in Sarawak and a key political bloc by entering into a pact with PAS as the ultra Malay political alliance will be seen as a liability to the ruling coalition's multiracial base.
The Coalition of Sarawak Parties (GPS) has already criticised the Umno-PAS alignment as a threat to progress, saying a single-race coalition would tear into the country’s multiracial fabric.
“Malaysia is a multiracial country hence no single race is able to dominate political control,” PBB vice-president Datuk Seri Stephen Rundi Utom said in a text reply to Malay Mail.
“To govern this country effectively we have to form coalitions...therefore if Umno-PAS merge as a single race party, our future will be jeopardised.”
Rundi’s response underscores the growing divide between Borneo-based political parties and its former peninsula ally, which they feel have become too Malay-centric for Sarawak’s polity of highly diverse communities.
On Wednesday evening, Umno and PAS formally declared their alliance to mark the start of a political co-operation that would go on until the 15th general election.
The announcement in effect signalled the end of the Barisan Nasional coalition, according to its secretary-general Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz.
Some analysts warned a Malay-only political bloc could heighten communal tension, as the tussle for Malay votes intensifies.
This came after MCA and MIC said they would seek a “new” political platform, although Umno acting president, Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, played down the fissure, saying yesterday that the two parties will likely remain with BN.
Sarawak’s political leaders have watched closely as chaos engulf its former allies.
With BN erupting and Umno drifting further to the right, aligning with moderate Pakatan Harapan will seem more practical for a coalition with a predominantly non-Malay base like GPS, said Jeniri Amiri, political analyst with Unimas, Sarawak.
“You have to remember in Sarawak, non-Malays are the majority,” he said.
“It would be in their (GPS) interest to stay away from working with Umno and PAS...it’s for their political own survival.”
Rundi reaffirmed the view.
When asked if GPS saw itself with Umno and PAS in the future, he said the coalition will maintain a “multiracial stance”.
“We maintain our multiracial stance through coalitions,” he told Malay Mail.
PBB, Sarawak’s ruling party, forms the largest faction in GPS, followed by the Sarawak United People’s Party, the Sarawak People’s Party and the Progressive Democratic Party.
The four were the first to quit BN after its ouster last year. It is now an independent political bloc that has cordial ties with PH.
Sarawak has 31 parliamentary seats and was until its departure a powerful “vote bank” for BN.
Together with Sabah, also governed by a PH-friendly independent bloc, the two states provide a fourth of the 222 parliamentary seats.
