PAS needs moderate ally as support base nears ceiling, says KJ

PETALING JAYA: PAS needs to work with another Malay party, particularly a moderate one, as its traditional religious support base is nearing saturation, says former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin.

Speaking on the Keluar Sekejap podcast, Khairy said the Islamic party might be the largest Malay party by Dewan Rakyat seats, but was hitting the ceiling on its voter base.

He said PAS had attempted to broaden its appeal by bringing more professionals into its ranks and placing its technocratic vice-president, Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, at the forefront. However, he said its growth remained constrained by its long-standing Islamic identity.

“Right now, PAS sees Hamzah Zainudin and his party as the moderate Malay partner to ensure that the Malay market that PAS might have gotten all this time, which is at best 50%, could rise up to 70% – because there is a partner who might be more acceptable to moderate Malays or professional Malays in the form of Hamzah and Wawasan,” he said.

Khairy said Hamzah also presented PAS with an alternative at a time when the party was finding it difficult to work with Umno under Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He described Hamzah as “the ultimate operator” who had the ability to bring together parties that would otherwise struggle to cooperate.

Khairy said the Johor election, set for July 11, could be the first signal of whether such back-channel diplomacy was already bearing fruit.

“Let’s not be surprised if PAS decides not to contest most of the seats in Johor, to give an easy path to Umno and Barisan Nasional as a goodwill gesture,” he said, adding that Hamzah might already have been facilitating such an arrangement.

Khairy said PAS could then use that gesture to persuade Umno to reciprocate in the Negeri Sembilan election or, eventually, in the 16th general election.

“Hamzah, I think, plays an important role in connecting PAS and Umno to create a grand collaboration between the main Malay parties.”

Former Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan, the podcast’s co-host, said Umno stood to benefit from PAS’s apparent overtures, as the party no longer faces attacks from PAS over its alliance with DAP in the unity government.

“If PAS’s aim today is to ‘propose’ to Umno, then it would not be attacking Umno. So Umno has gotten off one of its attackers,” he said.

On the turmoil in Perikatan Nasional following the PAS-Bersatu split, Khairy said the removal of Radzi Jidin and Azmin Ali from key roles in the coalition was a clear sign of what was coming.

“I am confident that in the next few days, Bersatu will be officially booted out of PN,” he said.