KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — A PAS leader suggested the alliance of the country’s biggest Malay political parties long ago to solve the country’s problem, said Umno President Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
He said that former PAS spiritual adviser, the late Datuk Haron Din, told him in 1998 when the latter was the PAS information chief that both parties should unite in the same struggle.
“Our hearts are tangled in the same struggle to champion massive agenda for the ummah (people). The country used to be peaceful, now it troubled by anxiety. The hardship of life has took hold of the people. Malaysia has become unstable and what was being built years ago was destroyed in a short time.
“In fact, in 1998, the late Professor Datuk Haron Din who was then the PAS info chief advised me that one day, Umno and PAS should unite in the same struggle (to free the people),” he told attendees at the Himpunan Penyatuan Ummah (HPU) today.
In 1998, PAS openly supported Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who was sacked by Umno and then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, over allegations of sodomy and corruption.
PAS helped PKR to grew from an informal outfit into what is now the country’s best represented party in Parliament.
The cooperation caused Barisan Nasional to lose its parliamentary supermajority in the 1999 general election, the first time it did so again since 1969.
Zahid also warned Umno and PAS members against any efforts to destroy the union.
He said that members of both parties should not subscribe to the versions of Malay-Muslim unity that will exclude non-Muslims in the country.
“Umno and PAS should not get involved in the narrow racial political sentiment and extremism because it goes against the Islamic nature,” he said.
Zahid and his PAS counterpart, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, created history today by signing the National Cooperation Charter that listed five cores of their alliance.
The basis of the charter, according to the statement, was to bring unify the ummah (Muslim community) to harmonise the multiracial Malaysia.
The first of the five core was to uplift and protect the Federal Constitution that guarantees the formation of the country, Islam as the religion of the federal, the special rights of the Malays and Bumiputera and the rights of other races, Bahasa Melayu as the national language as well as guaranteeing the protection of the multiracial society.
The second core is to strengthen national cooperation through discussions that involve all religions, races and culture for the sake of the country.
The third is empowering the Islamic, Malay and Bumiputera agenda according to the Federal Constitution.
The fourth is to form a cooperation by spreading the Islam and Malay narrative without refusing the rights of other religions, races and cultures as the centre of the political stability, racial harmony and country’s prosperity.
The fifth core is to work collectively on a new offer for the country to increase good governance, inclusive development policy and distribution that will fertilise the social justice regardless of skin colour and religion.
