PAS, Umno have mended ties, says Hadi

PETALING JAYA: PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang claims PAS and Umno have put the past behind them in an effort to consolidate the Malay-Muslim vote.

In a Facebook post, he said it was crucial for the Malay-Muslim leadership to remain in power in Johor, which will go to the polls tomorrow.

“With that in mind, PAS and Barisan Nasional (BN) established cooperation to avoid a split in the Muslim community’s political power.

“Differences that once existed have been set aside in the pursuit of a greater goal, namely to preserve the state’s stability and ensure that its leadership remains on the right path.”

PAS’s move to back BN at the Johor election marked a significant departure from much of PAS and Umno’s history, during which the two parties were often each other’s fiercest competitors.

A major flashpoint came in 1981 when Hadi delivered a controversial speech, later known as “Amanat Hadi”, in which he accused Umno leaders and members of being kafir (infidels) for upholding secular laws inherited from the colonial era instead of Islamic law.

He also described the political struggle against Umno as a form of jihad.

The speech was linked to the Memali incident, which saw 18 people, including four policemen, killed when police launched an operation to arrest religious teacher Ibrahim Mahmud in Memali, Baling, in Kedah.

While PAS and Umno formalised an alliance known as Muafakat Nasional in 2019, it effectively collapsed after PAS joined Bersatu to form Perikatan Nasional the following year.

In May, Hadi hit back at Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s remarks that betrayal was in the Islamic party’s “DNA”. He said Umno previously used the Internal Security Act against PAS, even though both parties had initially intended for it to be used against the communist threat.

“This ‘DNA of betrayal’ is in Umno, not PAS. The Malays will never forget this incident,” Hadi said in his regular column, Minda Presiden PAS.