“BERSATU has little choice but to move on” – Ramasamy
COMMENT BY PROF DR P.RAMASAMY
CHAIRMAN, URIMAI PARTY
There is a limit to how much Bersatu can put up with PAS. Yesterday’s decision by Bersatu to go it alone in the Negeri Sembilan state elections is the best decision the party has made. PAS had not only insulted Bersatu by inventing false reasons for severing ties but also manipulated PN, the opposition coalition, as though it were PAS’s mouthpiece.
PAS’ manipulation of PN to support BN in the recent Johor state elections was akin to Brutus stabbing his friend Julius Caesar to death during the heyday of the Roman Empire. It was unfortunate that the level-headed Muhyiddin Yassin, the president of Bersatu, did not respond to PAS by saying, “Et tu, PAS?”
Given the gross manipulation of PN by PAS, I think Muhyiddin has made the right and logical decision for Bersatu to forge ahead in the Negeri Sembilan elections without PN being “the Sword of Damocles” hanging over the opposition’s neck.
PAS, by placing PN at the feet of BN and Umno, destroyed the political gains made by the opposition coalition in the last general and state elections.
Why PAS’s sudden decision to support Umno remains a mystery. There are rumours that PAS was influenced by external factors.
Some are saying that the sudden interest in power and positions might have influenced PAS’s decision to support Umno, the nation’s well-known kleptocrats. BN should be happy with PAS for doing what it could not do on its own. Now I am wondering who the real “Trojan Horse” in the opposition ranks was. In a matter of seconds, PAS destroyed the opposition coalition of PN and made it subordinate to BN.
Bersatu has learnt its costly lesson of never trusting PAS again. A Malay friend of mine told me that PAS’s moral and religious camouflage has been laid bare by its decision to support Umno in the recent elections. However, what PAS started in Johor is likely to remain in motion until the next general election.
Yesterday’s Bersatu meeting ended by saying goodbye to PN as the grand coalition of the opposition. Those in BN and PH must certainly thank and congratulate the PAS leadership for doing the impossible.
