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©The Sun (Used by permission)
by Maria J.Dass

PUTRAJAYA (July 20, 2008) : Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today admitted that Umno and PAS have been holding talks to address issues on Muslim and Malay unity.

"I’ve actually had these meetings already (but) they are still at the preliminary stages" said Abdullah who had over the past week side-stepped the issue by only saying he welcomed dialogues between the two parties.

Declining to state the date of the meetings, Abdullah said: "If you must know, we have met three times."

"There’s no need for me to give you the details because you will end up speculating all kinds of things," he said when asked what was discussed.

Speaking to reporters after launching the National Cooperatives Day 2008 in the Putrajaya International Convention Centre, Abdullah described the meetings as having reached "a good level of understanding".

Asked who attended the meetings, he replied: "Those at the top level."

In the past month, PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang had denied having had talks with Umno while his deputy Nasharuddin Mat Isa also denied holding secret meetings with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak to discuss a possible collaboration between his party and Umno.

Influential PAS spiritual leader, Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, had also strongly ruled out any form of collaboration with Umno in the wake of intense speculations that the two rival parties are involved in a series of secret talks.

Nik Aziz who is also Kelantan Menteri Besar had been quoted earlier as saying that if the parties were to meet, there should be a third party to mediate the meetings.

Commenting on this, Abdullah said: "For now, we will discuss matters at our level and I haven’t thought about the need for a third party."

Asked what would come out of the meetings, Abdullah said: "We don’t have to tell you what we want to do."

When told that people wanted to know, he said: "Never mind, we have an understanding that we do not want to fight about religious issues among others.

"This is a serious meeting, not for fun and there is understanding," he added.

Earlier, during the press conference, when asked if there were any pre-conditions set before the two parties met, Abdullah said: "Why do we need to set conditions? We discuss sincerely and will accept the views that we feel are relevant."

Queried on whether other Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties were advised on the meetings and discussions, he said: "I haven’t advised them yet. We are talking on some issues which we think are important, like matters pertaining to Islam and religion."

"These are important matters which we should not be bickering about," Abdullah said, adding that if matters pertaining to religion are politicised, it will cause problems among the Muslims.

"That is just one of the topics of discussion. There are others and there’s no need for me to elaborate," he added.

Last week, Abdullah said any discussions with PAS on Malay and Muslim unity also had to take into account the sensitivities and needs of the non-Muslim communities in the country.

Abdullah denied that the talks touched on PAS’s cooperation with Pakatan Rakyat, saying that it was focused on Malay unity.

The issue came up when Hadi, in an interview with Harakah last week, proposed a "muzakarah" (dialogue between Umno and PAS).

On the role of cooperatives in curbing inflation, Abdullah said: "We want to make cooperatives the fourth economic growth sector after services, industries and agriculture."

He said cooperatives, especially those involved in supplying food and necessary items, can help reduce the effects of inflation by doing away with middlemen.

"They can then sell food and necessary items at lower prices," Abdullah said, adding that this was one of the means used to combat inflation in the 1960s.

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