Tasek Gelugor MP Wan Saiful Wan Jan has expressed support for cooperation between Umno and PAS in the upcoming Johor state election, while proposing that the Reset movement led by former Bersatu deputy president Hamzah Zainudin be included in the alliance.
Wan Saiful said Johor could become a catalyst for uniting Malay-based political parties, adding that an Umno-PAS-Reset state administration could serve as a model for the rest of the country.
“The issue of party logos and names is merely technical and can be easily resolved if there’s an agreement in principle. Malaysians are already used to candidates from one party contesting under an allied party’s banner.
“Johor can make history through this state election. Let us all negotiate with unity as our highest priority,” he said in a Facebook post.
Johor seen as platform for political unity
Wan Saiful said cooperation between Umno and opposition parties in Johor should not be viewed as a threat to Umno’s collaboration with Pakatan Harapan at the federal level.
He argued that the federalism framework allows different political alignments to exist simultaneously at the federal and state levels.
As an example, he pointed to the Sarawak legislative assembly, where DAP remains in the opposition despite being a federal ally of Gabungan Parti Sarawak.
“Therefore, Johor has the opportunity to become the first state in the peninsula to really practise this concept of federalism,” he said.
Response to Muafakat Nasional proposal
Wan Saiful, who was among the MPs expelled by Bersatu during the leadership dispute between Hamzah and party president Muhyiddin Yassin, was responding to PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man’s recent call for PAS and Umno to revive the Muafakat Nasional alliance.
The proposal comes as PAS reviews its relationship with its Perikatan Nasional ally, Bersatu.
Seat negotiations key to alliance revival
PAS central committee member Annuar Musa has also supported Tuan Ibrahim’s proposal but said the revival of Muafakat Nasional would require both Umno and PAS to make compromises on seat allocations.
According to Annuar, if Umno rejects the proposal put forward by Tuan Ibrahim, PAS should move on from the Barisan Nasional lynchpin and explore cooperation with other political parties ahead of the 16th general election.
