COMMENT Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s speculation on the reasons that will propel Umno and PAS to some form of cooperation underscores Charles de Gaulle’s dictum on the permanence of political interests over the variability of political friendships.

The Umno MP for Gua Musang has got it right: Umno and PAS, given the slumping state of their appeal to the Malaysian electorate, need to come to some electoral understanding to avoid doing poorly in the next general election (GE14), due 2018.

If an electoral understanding between them is the PAS quid for the pro quo of Umno’s support for hudud imposition in Kelantan, it will be imperative for the rest of the federal opposition to opt for a counterbalance to this Umno-PAS tie-up.