Salleh says PAS-Umno unity govt will never happen

He says BN knows that Sabah and Sarawak would never agree to having PAS in the coalition because of their religious agenda.

PETALING JAYA: While there is much talk about PAS forming a unity government with Barisan Nasional, the move was politically not viable as Sabahans and Sarawakians would not tolerate the Islamist party’s brand of destructive religious politics, said Salleh Said Keruak.

The Sabah State Speaker said Barisan Nasional knew how important Sabah and Sarawak was to their political survival and that they would not likely want to risk jeopardising this support by forming a coalition with an Islamist party like PAS.

“Sabah and Sarawak are very important to Barisan Nasional and there is no way we from Sabah and Sarawak, can accept PAS as a member of the Barisan Nasional coalition,” he said in a blog posting.

He also said PAS’s religious agenda was destructive and would divide the people and explained, “PAS’s brand of religious politics is very destructive and the people of Sabah and Sarawak can never agree to a political ideology that divides the people.”

Calling for a stop on all unity government talks, he said the more important issue would be to stem the rise of politics based on race and religion that was having a negative effect on national unity.

“Let us stop all talk of unity governments, as that is never going to happen, and instead talk about how we can end the very dangerous race and religion politics that seems to be hurting national unity.”