SHAH ALAM, Nov 24 — PAS and Umno will form a new government to replace Pakatan Harapan (PH) only through legitimate means, the Islamist party’s president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang asserted.
The Marang MP told a crowd numbering some 600 people at the Selangor Muafakat Nasional launch last night that the Opposition bloc was offered a chance to form the government through “back door” deals, but added that it would not do so.
“Inshaallah, we will enter Putrajaya through the front, not the back door.
“They opened the back door but we want to enter from the front,” he said, without disclosing the identities of those who made the offer.
“If the back door is open, then chaos will reign, which has resulted the confusion we see now in Pakatan Harapan,” Hadi added.
The PAS leader praised his Umno counterpart Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamid, whom he said was like-minded in wanting to “save” Malaysia without resorting to immoral tactics.
“We want changes in the country. We are not power hungry but we want to save the country,” he claimed.
Talks of PAS and Umno forming a “back door” government have been circulating for a while, starting with rumours that former Umno vice-president Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein was attempting to engineer a deal with PKR and Bersatu to ditch their PH partners Amanah and DAP.
It resurfaced following a leaked midnight meeting of several Umno and PKR MPs at PKR deputy president and Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali’s house in Putrajaya last week.
Azmin and PKR leaders in attendance have since denied allegations of a secret plot, saying the meeting was a discussion with the Opposition lawmakers who were interested in PH’s economic plans for the country.
However, PH chairman and Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad continued to fan the rumours by saying the Umno MPs who met Azmin last Monday night were “lost” and in need of a new party — a claim since refuted by 15 of them.
Last month, 18 PAS MPs and six from Umno declared support for Dr Mahathir to serve out a full term despite the PM’s promise to relinquish control of the government mid-way to PKR president and Port Dickson MP Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is not a part of the current Cabinet.
