MCA could gain more Malay support by working with PAS but at the cost of Chinese votes

SHAH ALAM - Unlike DAP, MCA may not face problems working with Pas except on issues contravening the Federal Constitution such as hudud laws, an expert says.

Senior fellow at Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research Political analyst Dr Azmi Hassan said that there are possibilities for MCA and Pas to work together as allies.

"MCA has been working with Umno for more than six decades, meanwhile Pas was a former ally of the DAP, so I don't see any reason of why MCA could not work with Pas or vice versa."

"If Umno and Pas work together under Muafakat Nasional, then MCA have no choice but to work together with Pas," he said.

Azmi added that when it comes to federal constitution, not only Pas but all political parties must adhere to it.

"Federal constitution is the primary law. It has been shown that Pas enact a law which apply to states only, such as Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah, and there have been few occasions where the law, especially regarding Syariah, goes against the Federal Constitution," he said.

"So in this case, there is no question about it as PAS has to respect or adhere to the Federal Constitution when they enact the law in this three states they control, it could not contravene the federal constitution and there are few instances that PAS has to back down." he said.

Azmi also commented that DAP's defeat in the previous Johor election was due to their voters being absent and this may seen as a "protest vote".

"There are Chinese voters but we have to be careful because some might be going back to Barisan Nasional but it is quite minimum. So the question is, if Barisan Nasional or Umno work with Pas, will the Chinese voters move away?" he asked.

"But again if we look at Melaka and Johor statistic voting statistics, the movement of Chinese voters supporting Barisan Nasional (BN) is very minimum." he said.