Zahid confident govt MoU will endure

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi says he is confident that the agreement of cooperation among political parties in establishing the government will be long-lasting.

Zahid, who is Umno president and chairman of Barisan Nasional (BN), said his party had agreed to the cooperation as long as it covered the elements of defending Islam, the special rights of the Malays, the status of Bahasa Melayu as the national language, and the sovereignty of the royal institution.

He said these elements were the prime concern of BN during negotiations with Pakatan Harapan (PH).

"When the agreement was signed by the various (political) parties, the matter was never compromised, and was even deemed as the first foundation of the agreement, not only for now, but for the long term," he said in an interview programme broadcast live on NRChannel TV's Facebook and YouTube last night. 

On Dec 16, the five major political parties, namely PH, BN, Gabungan Parti Sarawak, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah and Warisan, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Putrajaya to form the government.

The MoU was signed by the parties' secretaries-general – Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (PH), Zambry Abdul Kadir (BN), Masidi Manjun (GRS), Alexander Nanta Linggi (GPS) and Loretto Padua Jr (Warisan) – and witnessed by the chairmen of the political parties involved.

Meanwhile, Zahid said that following the 15th general election (GE15) results, Umno and BN were better off with PH for their long-term struggle.

"In short, the (Umno) Supreme Council decided that with PN (Perikatan Nasional), there would be more harm as they could contest in the same areas we (Umno) contest… areas with large numbers of Malay voters.

"We will surely fight in the same arena. We see from the aspect of political analysis and we have conducted several projections that there is huge potential for us to win back the areas where we lost votes, we can regain the potential," he added.

On being together with PH, he said the coalitions in the government should move forward and work as a team as long as they are united in thoughts, values and deeds.

Zahid also said that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had agreed to seek the similarities in the manifestos of all parties in the government so that their cooperation would benefit the people.

According to him, Umno and BN’s aim is to create political stability and ensure the people’s prosperity within the new national political alignment.

Zahid added that he would explain in further detail to Umno members the new political landscape through a policy speech during the Umno general assembly scheduled to take place from Jan 11 to 14.