Malaysian Insider July 28, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has nixed the chance of unity talks ever taking place between his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) ally PAS and the ruling coalition’s Umno, even without being stonewalled by the Islamist party’s Spiritual Adviser, Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat.
The Barisan Nasional (BN) Malay party has long viewed Nik Aziz as the main stumbling block towards achieving bi-party unity and political cooperation, an idea that has repeatedly cropped up post Election 2008.
“PAS maintains its stand it will not cooperate with Umno based on its past experiences and without being backed by principles.
“PAS leaders also reject this cooperation,” Anwar was reported saying during a visit to Kumpulan Media Karangkraf yesterday.
The PKR de facto chief added that Umno did not understand PAS; noting the grand old Malay party thought “if they can capture Nik Aziz, they would be able to control PAS.”
Anwar stressed that among the three PR parties – PAS, DAP and PKR – there could be no talks with Umno so long as conditions were imposed.
He claimed that any party looking for unity must begin on the “right premise”.
“[It] must be sincere in upholding justice and stop this oppression first. If not, any unity will be seen as Malays trying to dominate the other [racial] groups,” Anwar said, adding that no one was against Malay-Muslim unity.
“I also say it’s good,” he quipped, “but united for what [purpose]?”
“To be united is so it can uphold something better, not just because there is a threat,” he continued.
Yesterday, Umno information chief, Datuk Ahmad Maslan said his party would not stop its efforts to have unity talks with PAS despite opposition from Nik Aziz, who is also Kelantan Mentri Besar.
Ahmad said it was because Umno was confident there were certain groups in PAS that support its efforts.
“Nik Aziz can say anything but in PAS, there are certain groups. As everybody knows, PAS does not revolve around Nik Aziz alone,” said the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.
Ahmad stressed that PAS was not dependent on Nik Aziz to lead the party as there were others who could do so, such as the president, the deputy president and the party’s supreme council.
However, he agreed with Nik Aziz’s statement that there was no need for a middleman nor any conditions to be set in order for a meeting to take place.
PAS leaders have repeatedly stressed that the party had closed the chapter on talks with Umno and now was focused only on strengthening ties within PR.