Don’t force us to accept any political partner, says Umno

“Umno is not on a mission to show compassion for anyone to breathe and achieve victory with the help of Umno”

(FMT) – Umno vice-president Mohamed Khaled Nordin has said the party does not wish to be forced to accept anyone as its political partner.

Speaking on Umno’s cooperation with PAS under Muafakat Nasional (MN), Khaled expressed hope that PAS would respect the party’s stance against PPBM.

He said Umno’s current priority was achieving a double victory with PAS in the next general election, and that its cooperation with other parties was based on a “formula” that would give the party a “strategic advantage”.

“Umno is confident that PAS will not force Umno to accept PPBM, let alone simply give up seats to PPBM,” he said in a statement.

Khaled dismissed talk about PAS refusing to work with Umno without PPBM, saying such rumours came from an individual who wanted to “save PPBM” and split up MN.

He said any seat negotiations with PPBM would be discussed directly with the Perikatan Nasional coalition (PN) through Barisan Nasional (BN).

“Umno is not on a mission to show compassion for anyone to breathe and achieve victory with the help of Umno,” he said.

Previously, Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah had said the party would contest all its traditional seats in the next general election, including those it lost through defections.

Tengku Razaleigh had said the party will contest Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Pagoh parliamentary seat, and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Langkawi seat.

BN secretary-general Annuar Musa had also said BN wanted to defend all its traditional seats in the next elections.