JOHOR BAHRU, June 29 — Former Johor assembly speaker Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi claimed that the secret plot between Umno and PAS to form a political partnership for the Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections had led to the former being conceited.
He alleged that such efforts among the Malay nationalist party leaders to hold closed-door negotiations with PAS had existed even in the previous Johor election.
Puad, who was a former Umno supreme council member, revealed that the initial agreement required PAS to sit out the Johor state election, paving the way for a Barisan Nasional (BN) victory in all 56 constituencies.
He claimed that the proposed pact had caused several Umno leaders to be over-confident that the party can be victorious in Johor.
“Among the Umno leaders, Datuk Megat (political secretary to the deputy prime minister Datuk Wira Megat Zulkarnain Omardin) believed that if the negotiations were successful Umno can win big in Johor.
“Unfortunately, the Umno-PAS collaboration failed and this has caused BN to be in shambles.
“The situation is made worse by the recent BN candidates line-up consisting of recycled, mediocre (figures) and seen as anti-aspirational,” he said in his latest Facebook posting today.
Earlier, Puad revealed that the so-called negotiations with PAS were also raised in the Umno supreme council meeting on June 10.
He and several other supreme council members reminded the party leadership that negotiations with PAS should only continue if the goal was to win the state election or general election.
“However, if the collaboration is aimed at uniting the ummah, it will not succeed.
“It would be better to instead focus on the National Musyawarah Council that is chaired by Tan Sri Ghani Othman,” he said.
Puad said there are also those in Umno who believe that it is all right for former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to still be incarcerated.
To them, he said the Umno PAS collaboration would have a greater impact compared with Najib’s freedom, when he could help with campaigning in Johor.
“This situation has also turned some Umno leaders egoistic and over-confident,” he said.
Puad, who is often outspoken, left Umno on June 25 following his disagreement with the BN candidates list for the Johor election.
Date: 29 June, 2026 4:00 pm
Source: Malay Mail
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