PAS assures partners of commitment to Pakatan

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Aug 14, 2009

(The Malaysian Insider) KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — PAS leaders pledged their commitment to the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance at a top-level meeting yesterday, assuring PKR and DAP that the party would work with them to establish a formal coalition to take on the Barisan Nasional (BN).

At the meeting attended by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, the three partners agreed to formulate a common platform.

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, the former Umno minister who joined PKR recently, was given the job of fleshing out the platform from the loose electoral pact between the three parties.

The former minister has been given a two-month time frame to come up with the platform, which will be based on the original Barisan Alternatif pact first set down 10 years ago after Anwar was sacked from government and charged in court.

“There is no question of Pakatan breaking up. It is not true that we are imploding,” a Pakatan leader who was at the meeting told The Malaysian Insider.

“PAS is committed but feels a need to bring up issues concerning Islam, but they acknowledged the need to articulate such issues better.”

Yesterday’s meeting acknowledged there were still problems between the three parties in the way states under PR’s control are being administered.

It was agreed that each party would handle its own disciplinary issues although there will be some form of coordination.

The PR alliance has come under considerable pressure with signs of cracks after recent tiffs between PAS, DAP and PKR in the various states that they administer.