Mahathir atau Umno kena denda? Begitulah apa yang dapat dibaca dari dua lapuran berita dibawah ini. PAS menambah beberapa isu untuk dibincangkan dalam pertemuan kerana Mahathir telah membocorkan beberapa aspek pertemuan mendahului jawatankuasa.

Sepatutnya Mahathir tidak memberi sebarang komen yang menyakitkan hati PAS. Sekarang Umno terpaksa berdepan dengan lebih banyak isu tambahan dari PAS sebagai 'denda'.

Dr Mahathir mengatakan perbincangan itu sepatutnya memberi fokus kepada penyatuan kaum Melayu. Delegasi PAS bebas untuk mengemukakan sebarang topik tetapi beliau (Mahathir) tidak akan menyetujui sebarang agenda.

Kenyataan Mahathir inilah yang menyebabkan haru-biru semua. Sepatutnya ahli Umno menyuruh Mahathir berundur terus dari takhta, kerana asyik menimbulkan masalah sahaja.

-MSuri-

Rencana Rujukkan:

http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/6/news/nmsia04.html

17 Feb 2001

Preliminary talks between Umno, PAS go ahead

PRELIMINARY talks between Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's party and a powerful opposition group went ahead yesterday after earlier being called off by officials on the government side.

Officials from Dr Mahathir's United Malays National Organisation (Umno) and the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) met for almost two hours yesterday afternoon to discuss details of a planned leaders' meeting on ways to heal political rifts among the country's predominant Muslim community.

Earlier yesterday, an Umno official said the meeting would not go ahead. Officials leaving yesterday's talks did not explain the turnaround or give details of what was discussed.

"The talks went OK," PAS secretary-general Nasharudin Mat Isa told reporters as he left the meeting.

Dr Mahathir earlier this week announced that he and an Umno delegation would meet PAS leaders on Monday.

PAS on Thursday accused Dr Mahathir of pre-empting an announcement on the talks and threatened to pull out unless he agreed to put sensitive political topics such as alleged violation of democracy and the jailing of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on the agenda.

PAS officials said after yesterday's meeting that Umno officials wrote to the opposition group apologising for announcing leaders' talks before officials on both sides were ready.

Dr Mahathir has said the talks should focus on unity among ethnic Malay Muslims.

PAS delegates would be free to raise any topic they wished at the talks, Dr Mahathir said, but he did not agree to any agenda. PAS leaders on Thursday accused Dr Mahathir of ignoring their demands.

Dr Mahathir has been cautiously courting PAS since it made inroads into Umno's powerbase among Muslim Malays at 1999 elections. PAS tripled its seats in Parliament at the elections and made gains in several other Malay Muslim provinces.

Support for Dr Mahathir has been waning since he fired Anwar in 1998. Anwar was later convicted of corruption and s###my and is serving jail terms totalling 15 years. -- AP

From The Singapore Straits Times
18th February 2001

Mahathir silent so PAS talks will proceed

The Prime Minister is deliberately not responding to PAS provocation because he wants to ensure that the Malay unity summit goes ahead

By Brendan Pereira
MALAYSIA CORRESPONDENT

KUALA LUMPUR - How much importance does Umno place on the Malay unity summit with rival PAS?

Here is an indicator: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad has decided to bite his tongue and not respond to any provocation until he sits down and meets his counterpart from the opposition Parti Islam Se- Malaysia tomorrow.

'When we meet, we can say anything,' said the Premier.

During the past two days, PAS has tested his resolve to go ahead with the historic talks.

First, it wanted the scope of the talks widened. Instead of just examining the divide in the Malay community and its consequences, the opposition wanted two other matters to be discussed - the non-payment of oil royalties to the PAS-led Terengganu state government and the trial of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

A day later, the list grew slightly longer. As a 'punishment' for Dr Mahathir 'breaking the embargo' and announcing the date of the proposed talks, PAS wanted several other issues put on the table.

These included the alleged misuse of pension funds and the role of Islam in Malaysia. Packaged together with the list of demands was a take-it-or-leave-it attitude - an attitude that upset a ruling party not used to being dictated to by the opposition.

So when reporters spoke to Dr Mahathir yesterday, they expected him to criticise PAS. He declined comment.

Umno insiders said that during the last supreme council meeting, Dr Mahathir had made it clear that the meeting with PAS was important. The party's management committee also instructed party publications to stop attacking PAS and its leaders in the run-up to the talks.

It is understood that the party leadership believes that some sort of agreement must be struck with PAS leaders to ensure that despite differences in politics, one fact about Malaysia must remain: the primacy of the Malays.

They believe that if any non-Malay group senses a difference in resolve among Malay groups to defend their special position and tries to take advantage of it, there could be chaos.

The ruling party also hopes that a meeting with PAS leaders will bring some spin-offs - a more civil political landscape and a lowering of tension in rural areas.

But Umno is aware that not everyone in PAS wants the unity talks to materialise. Dr Mahathir's decision to keep silent is a response to this constituency.

PAS president Datuk Fadzil Noor and his supporters believe that it would be ungracious to turn down an invitation to sit down and talk to Dr Mahathir and Umno leaders.

He also believes he can extract a quid pro quo from the Premier - a promise to turn on the tap and allow RM1 billion (S$447 million) in oil royalties to flow to Terengganu annually.

But some of the younger leaders and the religious scholars feel that the PAS president is walking into a trap. They have made it clear that he must not be involved in a four-eyes meeting with Dr Mahathir - concerned that their leader will be no match for the Umno president.

They insist that if the summit is to take place, it must be between a six-man delegation from PAS and a six-man Umno delegation.

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg