Mahfodz Mohamed said all three parties had to unite to strengthen the Malay-Muslims, warning that failing to do so could see Pakatan Harapan (PH) returning to power.

“After GE14, Umno can’t say it wants a lot of seats. So I ask these three parties to be tolerant.

“Don’t think of personal interests because if we don’t unite, Umno-PAS-Bersatu will lose and our political enemies will benefit. What happened in GE14 is bound to be repeated,” he told FMT.

PH came to power after the 2018 elections after its four parties – DAP, PKR, Amanah and Bersatu – won 113 of the 222 parliamentary seats.

However, Bersatu quit after the “Sheraton Move” in February last year, which led to the formation of the Perikatan National government led by Muhyiddin Yassin.

Mahfodz said to ensure Malay-Muslim dominance, Umno and Bersatu should forget about their disputes and focus instead on strengthening Umno’s Muafakat Nasional (MN) pact with PAS.

Insisting that PAS was the bridge between the country’s Malay-Muslim political parties, he said the party would never give up on uniting Umno and Bersatu under MN.

“If we do not consolidate these three parties on the basis of unity of the ummah, we can’t win,” he said.

He also said MN should open up its membership to non-extreme Bumiputera parties such as Warisan and Amanah to create a larger political tent.

“If Amanah can stay away from DAP, then they can be with us (in MN). PAS is angry with Amanah (which is a PAS splinter party) and Umno is angry with Bersatu, but if they can isolate themselves from DAP, we can accept them as long as ‘no Anwar, no DAP’,” he said.