KUALA LUMPUR: The “grand collaboration” is not a revival of Muafakat Nasional, says Datuk Sri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
The Umno president said there are no plans to revive Muafakat Nasional as the proposed collaboration will focus on empowering the struggles of the Malays and Islam.
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“It will be above it. However, this unity is not at the expense of other races or religions.
“Even though there are proposals to revive Muafakat, we have rejected the name as the collaboration has been registered as a non-governmental organisation,” he said during a press conference at the Umno general assembly 2025 here, Saturday (Jan 17).
The now-defunct Muafakat, which was widely known as a loose political pact between Umno and PAS, was formed in 2019.
It went sour after the latter joined Bersatu in the Perikatan Nasional collaboration
Ahmad Zahid also clarified that this initiative differs from the committee formed to consider the reentry of former leaders into the party.
The Deputy Prime Minister confirmed that preliminary discussions have already been held with the leadership of Malay and Muslim parties, including PAS and Bersatu.
“There was nothing set in stone. Discussions were held a while back,” he said.
He did not rule out the possibility that this “grand collaboration” could materialise at the coming Melaka and Johor state elections.
“We will see,” he briefly replied.
When asked if the proposal is similar to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's call to unite the Malays, Ahmad Zahid emphasised that Umno has always been crucial to the unity of Malays.
“How can there be any Malay unity without Umno?” he said.
Ahmad Zahid said Umno would be inviting the top leadership of respective Malay Muslim-based parties in efforts to start discussions over the ‘grand collaboration’ in the near future.
Elaborating further, he said that Umno had met with the political leaders unofficially in relation to the collaboration.
He, however, said there was nothing concrete yet in terms of guidelines or agreement.
