😍 I choose you 😍

Though it may have started out with a kiss tender hugs and wide smiles back in 2019, the Umno-PAS love affair appears to have come to an end all ’cos of the younger and kononnya far more fetching Bersatu.
 
Umno, PAS and Bersatu were the prime movers of the Sheraton Move that saw the Pakatan Harapan gomen dumped for the Muhyiddin Yassin-led Perikatan Nasional. But that particular three-way hook-up’s been hit by rocky patches. So now, Umno’s stand is that it and its Barisan Nasional partners are gonna head into the next general election on their own.
 
Technically this means there’s no room for PAS, which is officially part of PN. But Umno boss Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, a man who clearly likes to both have his cake and eat it, also wants Umno to have its paramour of two years by its side. One catch — the Islamist party must stop two-timing and be steadfast in its love and devotion to Umno.

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Ultimatums in relationships, unfortunately, are always a bad idea. And in Umno’s case, the demand for loyalty’s not only pushed PAS and Bersatu together but forced the two parties to be open about their association. 
 
To be clear, the lovebirds haven’t exactly formalised their union in the same manner Umno and PAS did when they established Muafakat Nasional. But the terms of their relationship agreement appear to have been significantly revised to include the setting up of a committee to plan and plot both parties’ GE15 strategies. Also, the duo are making a stand — there’ll be no new political alignment, especially not with opposition parties, once the elections are done and dusted.
 
Poor Uncle Zahid. The Umno bossman had said at last weekend’s AGM that while his party and coalition are determined to fly solo into the next polls, there could be link-ups with sincere and honest partners (whatever that means) after the ballots are counted. Sadly for him, PAS wants to have nothing to do with any of that.
 
It’s true. Malaysia’s political sands shift so quickly that it’s hard to predict what will really happen both before and after PM Moo officially calls for elections. However, PAS throwing its lot in with Bersatu is significant ’cos it serves as a clear middle finger to Zahid, whose leadership is already facing a tonne of scrutiny from within and without his party.
 
Surely dear Zahid must have felt the Islamist party, which traditionally saw Umno as its biggest threat for the Malay-Muslim vote, would’ve ditched MooMoo and his merry men when push came to shove. But what he perhaps hadn’t considered is that PAS has benefitted so much from PN since the change in gomen — three ministers and five deputy ministers in cabinet — that it might be loath to give all that up to play second fiddle to Umno/BN.
 
Of course, as previously noted, there could still be many a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip. However, as things stand right now, congratulations on PAS and Bersatu’s renewal of nuptials are perhaps in order.