PETALING JAYA: Relationships between political parties in a coalition and with other groupings must be honest and transparent.
Otherwise, the parties involved will be accused of being involved in conspiracies, Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi said today.
In a veiled jibe at its Muafakat Nasional partner PAS, he said the party was getting “too comfortable” with all the different alliances it was involved in and asked whether this was tantamount to “two-timing” its partners.
“If it is, I want to ask Takiyuddin Hassan (PAS secretary-general) if this is not a political conspiracy,” he said.
Puad said Umno had been open and transparent in its ties with the Islamist party and the Perikatan Nasional coalition (PN), with nothing to hide.
“We have been open about our stand. Our MPs have been sincere in supporting Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as the prime minister even though he was involved in a conspiracy to bring down Umno in the 2018 general election.
“Former prime minister Najib Razak had also made a public statement on the party’s conditional support for the 2021 budget.
“He said if the promises were not kept, Barisan Nasional had a way to handle it,” he said, adding that it became a conspiracy only when there was no honesty or openness.
Takiyuddin had said that the greatest legacy of a true leader was defending unity and solidarity. “It must be based on honesty. If not, it becomes a conspiracy.”
Puad said Takiyuddin was obviously referring to his (Puad’s) statement a few days ago imploring BN to withdraw its support for Muhyiddin’s PN government.
Puad said he was surprised that Takiyuddin chose to respond to his call when it should have been PPBM that should have replied to his views.
He denied his proposal to withdraw support for Muhyiddin as the prime minister would lead to disunity.
“If we withdraw support, it will be for the sake of the rakyat as PN has failed to keep its promises.
“When PAS and DAP were friends, did it split the Malays? When PAS parted ways with DAP, it did not destroy the society and the country,” said Puad.