Perak PH agrees to 'en bloc' cooperation

Perak Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) chairman Datuk Asmuni Awi said it meant that if any component party of PH was not accepted, then they would not join the new cooperation.

He said the agreement was made by consensus among the leaders of Perak PH before they had an audience with the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah on Saturday.

"(Otherwise) it will not make the government a strong one. Let's say there are UMNO seats, then DAP is removed ... all that remains are Amanah and PKR, the total number of seats is only 33.

"This is very fragile. More or less similar to the old government. If there is one party that sulks, then the government will not last long and will collapse again.

"So, what would be the people's views at that time? We want to avoid the people's negative views and perceptions of politicians," he said.

He said this when met at his residence in Ipoh on Sunday to comment on UMNO President Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's statement that UMNO and Barisan Nasional (BN) would not rule out the possibility of forming a new political alignment in Perak.

Commenting further, Asmuni stressed that their priority was to form a Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.

However, he said, in the interest of the people, they were ready to work with other parties to form a stable government at least until the next general election.

"Although we know that the history of PH has never been good with UMNO, but for the sake of the people and also looking at the current state of the country affected by COVID-19 ... the victims are the people themselves.

"So, we put aside our respective political egos to form a stable, strong government and defend the interests of the people. That is actually our goal to work with all parties," he said.