KUANTAN: Establishing ties with Perikatan Nasional(PN) to form the federal government after the 15th general election(GE15) would have been harmful for Umno, said Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

The deputy prime minister said the decision was taken after serious consideration including scrutinising which political alliance, either with PN or Pakatan Harapan(PH), would bring lesser harm.

“In politics, there are no permanent friends… no permanent enemies. In such a situation(deciding between PN and PH) I looked at which will pose ‘mudarat’ (harm) whether it be PN or PH… not about benefits, the benefits will come much later.

“I tabled the proposal with friends in Umno’s supreme council and political bureau, and some did not agree. I would like to inform here that out of the 56 party’s supreme council members including those who won and were appointed, only two did not agree(teaming with PH) which means more than 95 per cent agreed with my suggestion… it will bring more harm if we joined PN,” he said in an interview with Agenda Awani last night.

In terms of benefits, Zahid said the move to back PH had led to political stability where the federal government was formed with a simple majority of 112.

“Later, our friends(members of parliaments) from Sarawak and Sabah along with independent MPs joined the government to secure a two third majority with 148 seats. If not because of divine intervention, how could we get 112 on the dot or 148 seats?

“This is the reality.. I tried but divine intervention gave us something very abnormal. We have to leave it to Allah the Almighty besides putting in the effort,” he said.

Zahid was earlier asked about his “out-of-the-box” decision to strike the unexpected partnership with PH to form the government whereby he had previously been together with PN and Muafakat Nasional after the infamous Sheraton Move, which led to the fall of the PH government in February 2020.  NST

NST

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