UMNO and Pas accept Bersatu's participation in MN

He said an official letter of agreement had been sent to Bersatu President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on August 13, before the official response to Bersatu's willingness to join MN, signed by Muhyiddin himself, was received on August 18.

"UMNO and PAS were committed in forming MN realising that the political power of the Malays and Muslims is weakening because of the increasingly severe split, and latest, efforts to strengthen MN continue to get an additional injection with the readiness of Bersatu to participate in MN.

"The matter was discussed carefully and in depth by the MN Steering Committee co-chaired by the UMNO Deputy President and the PAS Deputy President on August 6 before the official letter was sent to Bersatu," he said in a 'post' on his Facebook page today.

Annuar, who is also the Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary-general, said that after receiving the letter of reply, the UMNO Political Bureau itself had discussed the latest development on August 23, which also involved all state UMNO liaison chairmen and state BN chairmen.

"UMNO is very concerned and cares about efforts to unite the Malays and build the core strength of the Malay-Muslim group... it is an obligation and a priority which is fundamental to the struggle of UMNO itself.

"On that basis, UMNO had agreed that MN accepted the participation of Bersatu and would like to see with the participation, consolidation and unity of the Malays grow stronger in line with the MN charter which was recorded prior to this," he said.