BN, PAS Youth share stage in ‘national consensus’

(FMT) – The youth chiefs of Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties shared a stage with their PAS counterpart at a ceramah here last night in what appears to be a further cementing of ties ahead of the Tanjung Piai by-election on Saturday.

Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, MCA’s Nicole Wong, MIC’s R Thinalan and PAS’ Khairil Nizam Khirudin each addressed the audience, speaking of a spirit of consensus among the four parties.

Wong, who began her speech by saying “Salam muafakat nasional”, thanked Khairil whom she called “a new friend” for his support for her party colleague Wee Jeck Seng, BN’s candidate in the Tanjung Piai polls.

Thinalan meanwhile said he was happy to see so many in blue, in what he said was a show of increasing support for the coalition.

“Four youth chiefs from different parties on the same stage. This is BN and PAS,” he added.

“We have a ‘muafakat nasional’ when both blue and green are combined,” he said, referring to the colours of BN and PAS.

Khairil said BN had led the country for over 60 years while PAS had been in the opposition for the same length of time.

“And now we are both in the opposition,” he added.

Asyraf meanwhile told the 300-strong crowd that the cooperation between BN and PAS showed that they were not racist.

On Sept 14, Umno and PAS signed a charter of unity, seeking to uphold the interest of the Malays, Islam as the official religion and Malay as the national language.

Umno deputy president Mohamed Khaled Nordin said then that the charter was not exclusive to Umno and PAS, and invited parties from Sabah and Sarawak as well as civil society groups to be part of it as well.