Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, a professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia, said only PAS would benefit if Umno became more exclusive and rigid, as had been speculated in a Singapore news report.
The report said about 70% of the Malay electorate had voted for either Barisan Nasional or PAS at the recent general election.
Ahmad Fauzi said the elections had been “a devastating experience” for Umno and Barisan Nasional. “When they fell, they fell hard, and on top of that, they have no experience in being an opposition party.”
After Umno’s loss of power in the general election last month, there had been contrasting opinions on how the party should proceed, with some calling for open membership of the Malay party, while others suggested closer relations with PAS.
“If Umno were to go on harping about race and religion, and there’s some sort of backlash from the Malay Muslims, the main beneficiary might be PAS,” he said.
Umno Supreme Council member Tajuddin Abdul Rahman had recently said that an Umno-PAS combination would be able to challenge the Pakatan Harapan government and its supporters “who have been insulting Malays and Islam lately”.
However, Ahmad Fauzi said that PAS were unlikely to be as interested in such an alliance. “It does not benefit PAS,” he said. “It would legitimise accusations by PH and especially Amanah, and PAS would lose a lot of grassroot support. The beneficiary, by default, would be PH.”
PAS was more than likely to be happy with being in control of Kelantan and oil-rich Terengganu, besides being used to opposition politics.
Ahmad Fauzi said that the lower level of support among Malays for Pakatan Harapan showed that the coalition would need to overcome fears that the social contract between races in the country would unravel, because of fears being stoked about the DAP and the position of Islam.