Why would Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who claimed to be a prime minister for all Malaysians, back a proposal to set up a one-race, one-religion Selangor government?

That’s the question being asked by DAP leader Lim Kit Siang.

It was revealed that days after the March 8 general elections, Umno met with bitter rival PAS to discuss power-sharing under the guise of Malay unity and Islam in a desperate bid to retain power in Selangor.

The secret meeting, which was engineered by former mentri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, was attended by Abdullah and three PAS leaders - deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa, Terengganu commissioner Mustafa Ali and Abdul Khalid Samad, MP for Shah Alam.

“Right-thinking Malaysians must find it most shocking and outraged that Abdullah ... who had repeatedly pledged to be prime minister of all Malaysians and not just for any one race, could give his blessing and endorse the formation of a one-race, one-religion government for the most advanced state in Malaysia - Selangor,” said Lim.

He said that Abdullah should explain why he backed the Khir Toyo proposal.

Aim was to stop DAP

According to Khalid, Umno wanted to halt DAP from making inroads into the Selangor government and was willing to work with PAS to stop the predominantly Chinese party from being part of the state government.

Umno was willing to offer PAS the mentri besar post as well as four executive councillors posts if it agreed to defect to the Barisan Nasional coalition.

Khir - who was to be deputy mentri besar in the joint government - said he was even willing to be left out of the state government line-up if that would encourage PAS to accept the partnership.

Despite the offer, PAS chose to back the Pakatan Rakyat state government with PKR Selangor chief Khalid Ibrahim as menteri besar. PAS was given three state executive councillors in the new government.

Even with PAS's eight seats, a Umno-MCA-PAS coalition will have 28 seats, equal to the PKR-DAP haul. This may result in an impasse on which coalition can form government.