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By Mihar Dias September 2026
Quid pro quo: a favour for a favour, an exchange in which one transfer depends on the other. In the marketplace we call it trade. In Malaysian politics we call it “unity.”
PAS's election chief, Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, has at least been refreshingly candid about it. Negotiating with UMNO over seats, he says, is like doing business: tak untung tak apa, jangan rugi. Profit is optional, but losses are not. His rule is simple: if UMNO yields seats in Melaka, PAS will yield seats elsewhere, sacrifice for sacrifice. "Simple saja," he says. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EWDkqi2L3/
It is simple, if you leave out the voters. Nowhere in this ledger is there a line for the people who will actually mark the ballot. Seats are treated as inventory, constituencies as stock to be swapped across the counter. Melaka for Perak, one stronghold for another. The party's "modal" (capital), which Sanusi does not want eaten into, is measured in seats, not in principles or promises to the ones who elected them.
The cynic notes the choice of metaphor. Business partners are not friends. They are parties who tolerate each other while the numbers work. Sanusi himself says the talks are going "ding dong, ding dong," and there is no romance in that phrase, only haggling. The same man says mahu tak mahu, suka tak suka, willing or not, PAS must team up with UMNO. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EWDkqi2L3/
That is not the language of shared vision. It is the language of a marriage of convenience with a calculator on the table.
And the arithmetic is honest, for once. PAS has states it won alongside UMNO and states it held without them. Cooperation is a tool, not a conviction, to be used where it adds seats and dropped where it doesn't. UMNO, no doubt, is doing the same sums in the next room.
So let's not pretend this is about mutual respect, though "respect" is the word on offer: tempat mereka, kita hormat; tempat kita, mereka hormat. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EWDkqi2L3/
Respect here means "stay off my turf." It is a ceasefire line drawn on the electoral map, and both sides will call it principle.
The real question is who pays for the deal. Somewhere, a local party worker who spent years building a branch will be told to campaign for a rival, because the ledger demands it. Quid pro quo has a price, and it is rarely paid by the ones who sign the agreement.
Business is business. Just don't call it sacrifice when the only ones sacrificed are the voters' choices.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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