Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi confirmed that he has met several leaders from PAS and Bersatu to discuss uniting the Malays through a “grand coalition”.
He said the informal meeting also involved several other Malay parties.
“As the largest Malay-Muslim political party, Umno is inviting the other parties to proactively and strategically combine resources for a discussion,” Sinar Harian reported him as saying at a press conference after the Umno general assembly ended yesterday.
He said the grand coalition would involve at least 10 top leaders from the various Malay-Muslim parties, ranging across presidents, deputy presidents and other senior leaders.
In his winding-up speech at the general assembly earlier, Zahid expressed his wish to form a new grand coalition to unite all Malay-Muslim parties under one umbrella.
He said the new coalition would not be a threat to the unity government, and assured Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim that he had no intention of forming a backdoor government.
Zahid said the hope was for the grand coalition to “truly unite the spirit and struggle of Malay-Muslim parties in a larger framework”, and allow for parties to become “informal allies under one roof”.
He said members of the new alliance would have to agree not to disrupt the unity government in order to join the grand coalition.
He also rejected proposals to revive Muafakat Nasional, saying the name has already been registered as a non-governmental organisation.
