By Mohsin Abdullah

We know that a few days ago former Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak met current Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi at the latter's residence. And they talked.

What did they talk about? I don't know. Could it be that Najib was lobbying for his son to be the Umno candidate to contest the Chini by-election on July 4? Maybe, but I can't say for sure.

But somehow Zahid saw it right to post on Facebook photos of him meeting Najib and entourage. That's not all. As we know, he also proudly proclaimed "Kami sudah siap untuk PRU15. Adakah anda semua sudah bersedia bersama kami?" Or "We are ready for GE15. Are you all ready to be with us?"

By "kami" or "we" was Zahid talking about himself and Najib and their people? It's a no-brainer Umno has its share of factions despite the public show of unity. Or was Zahid as president talking in the name of Umno to say that his entire party is ready for polls?

The general consensus among political observers, commentators and analysts is that Zahid was referring to Umno the party. And when he posed the question "are you ready to be with us", was he referring to Umno members and supporters, or the rakyat generally? Never mind that. Let's move on to the big questions.

When he said general election 15, was he talking of a snap election or the GE15 which is supposed to beheld some three years from now?

Head of Research at Ilham Center Professor Dr Yusri Ibrahim says chances of election be called anytime soon are slim.

Elections, Yusri reminds us, can only be called when the prime minister seek the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to dissolve the Parliament. Considering the precarious situation the Perikatan Nasional government is in right now, it is most unlikely that prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin would advise the King to dissolve the Parliament for a snap election,says Yusri. True.

However, snap election could be a possibility if Pakatan Harapan and allies, or the Umno-PAS pact move against Muhyiddin who currently holds a razor thin majority in the Parliament.

Anyway, whether a snap election now or election three years from now, Umno has declared earlier that it would have no qualms to field its candidates against Muhyiddin's Bersatu in seats Umno considers its "traditionally". This they say despite being part of the Muhyiddin administration.

Datuk A Kadir Jasin, Bersatu supreme council member aligned to Tun Mahathir Mohamad, has an interesting poser – "Is Umno-BN ready to topple the Malay-Muslim Perikatan Nasional led by Muhyiddin to force GE15 to be held earlier?"

Judging from what Zahid said, it is not wrong to say that he and Najib want to be involved, or put it simply both want to contest GE15 snap or otherwise. But how about the court charges they are now facing?

I agree with Kadir in asking this: "Are the two of them foreshadowing and assuring their supporters that they would be freed of their criminal cases in court?" as reported by MalaysiaKini.. That to me is a very big question.

Zahid sounded confident when he announced Umno's readiness to face election. But the thing is, Umno as well PAS had "clamored" for snap elections even during the Pakatan Harapan rule, saying their pact known as Muafakat Nasional will win to rule Malaysia.

First of all. they had pointed to the seats won by Pakatan Harapan in GE14 by slim margins. As Umno and PAS see it, the combined votes won by both parties were more than the votes obtained by Harapan in winning the seats.

So, they say in the next election the same number of votes will be given to just Umno or PAS as only either of them will be contesting. Hence, that would be enough for Muafakat Nasional to win those seats.

But Ilham Center CEO Azlan Zainal has often told me it is not as simple as that. A lot of things need to be considered, including issues of the day, the candidates, locations,demographics and what not.

"It's not like transferring of fund via online banking," he told me months ago.

Still Umno and, to an extent, PAS have always said they are confident of winning when they contest as one entity, i.e. Muafakat Nasional. But there are many problems to be faced, and they know it.

A big issue will be the allocation of seats, and who to contest where. The seats Umno and PAS are targeting are the same seats they have contested in every election, but against each other!

Come next election they will have to make big sacrifices in letting go of their so-called traditional seats. While the incumbents would most likely be allowed to take another shot in defending their respective seats, problems will arise in seats where both Umno and PAS claim they can win.

Lots of give-and-take would be needed. Up till now Umno and PAS seem to be sweeping the problem under the carpet, perhaps adopting the "we will cross the bridge when we come to it" attitude.

But Umno and PAS had their chance of putting this to test when political observers suggested they accommodate each other for exco positions in states which they were ruling. Like in PAS-held Kelantan and Terengganu. and Umno-BN's Pahang and Perlis. This was following the results of GE14. But the suggestions by analysts were ignored.

Now there is a suggestion made by Ilham Center's Yusri that Umno make way for PAS to contest the Chini by-election to prove its sincerity and appreciation for PAS' contributions to Umno.

It is almost certain that Umno will win the Chini seat. But Umno is said to be considering Datuk Nizar Najib,son of former PM Najib, to contest the seat.

There are many more problems which the two parties need to iron out in facing the next election. Hence, I ask if the show of confidence is genuine or merely a case of bravado.

Then there's the question of non-Malay Muslim votes. To state the obvious, a political coalition can only win the election in Malaysia with the support of all people of different races, communities and religions. A strong support of Malays and non-Malays is of utmost importance.

Umno and PAS know this. On their own to win non-Malay votes is very hard, if not impossible. They will have to bank on MCA and MIC to deliver the non-Malay votes. No easy feat considering the state of affairs in both parties and also on how Umno and PAS have hurt the feelings of non-Malays in the past and even not too long ago.

I'll end with this. During the political coup in February, Gabungan Parti Sarawak's Tan Sri James Masing was on record saying GPS was more comfortable working with PAS than DAP.

A few weeks ago, he was also on record saying he was doubting PAS' sincerity when the party suggested the federal government suspend the production and sale of liquors to prevent drunk driving.

(Mohsin Abdullah is a veteran journalist and now a freelancer who writes about this, that and everything else.)