Former aide to Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, Marzuki Mohamad, has claimed that the party had agreed to PAS’s proposed conditions before the Islamic party decided to end their political cooperation.
Marzuki said he arranged a meeting last Thursday between Muhyiddin and PAS central committee member Annuar Musa to discuss issues that had strained relations between the two Perikatan Nasional allies.
Conditions discussed to resolve differences
According to Marzuki, Annuar suggested that one way to resolve the conflict was to allow other Malay-Muslim parties to join Perikatan Nasional and for Bersatu to reconcile with the group of former party leaders led by Hamzah Zainudin.
Hamzah, the former Bersatu deputy president, was dismissed from the party in February during a leadership dispute involving Muhyiddin.
In a Facebook post, Marzuki said Bersatu had no objection to accepting new parties into the coalition, noting that Muhyiddin had originally brought the various groups together through the loose Ikatan Prihatin Rakyat coalition.
He added that reconciliation with the ‘Reset’ group was also raised during the discussions.
‘I told Annuar that the wounds were still fresh, but time would heal them. Give us some time.
‘However, if this matter is the key to resolving the conflict, Bersatu was ready to discuss it for the sake of preserving PN’s interests,’ he said.
Bersatu prepared to consider PAS’s requests
Marzuki said PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan later sent a letter dated June 6 outlining three conditions to repair relations. They included addressing Bersatu’s negative perception of PAS, accepting other parties into Perikatan Nasional, and reconciling with Hamzah’s faction.
He said he was relieved because the contents of the letter closely matched what Annuar had conveyed during their meeting and described the conditions as acceptable.
However, Marzuki said both he and Muhyiddin believed the proposals should first be presented to the Bersatu Supreme Council in accordance with party procedures.
He said Muhyiddin subsequently replied to Takiyuddin, expressing Bersatu’s readiness to consider the conditions once the Supreme Council convened.
Marzuki added that he personally passed the letter through a PAS intermediary and indicated during the brief meeting that the three conditions would not be too difficult for Bersatu to fulfil.
PAS moved to end political cooperation
Despite those developments, Marzuki said PAS’s central committee decided the following day to sever political ties with Bersatu.
On Monday night, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang announced that the party had decided to end its political cooperation with Bersatu, which he had previously accused of straining relations between the two parties.
Hadi said PAS would instead explore forming a new political pact to contest the upcoming state elections and the next general election with the aim of ‘uniting the ummah’.
Nevertheless, PAS remains a component party of Perikatan Nasional alongside Bersatu, Gerakan and the Malaysian Indian People’s Party.
