PAS: Hadi did not derail Sept 16
(Harakah English Section) – PAS leaders have criticized as mischievous a news report that accused party president Abdul Hadi Awang of having “played an instrumental role in derailing Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim’s plan to take over the federal government on Sept 16, 2008.”
“We may not be able to see who the puppet masters are but we know they have ulterior motives. There have always been hidden hands who want to pit PKR, DAP and PAS against each other,” Mahfuz Omar, PAS vice president, told Harakahdaily.
“Their intention is simple – they want to weaken Pakatan Rakyat. Whether it is for Umno or for themselves, the end-game is the same – to infiltrate and destroy Pakatan.”
Painting Hadi a racist
On Thursday, Free Malaysia Today quoted blogger Tulang Besi as saying Hadi was unhappy because of the high number of non-Malay MPs in Anwar’s defection plan.
“When Anwar presented the 30 MPs from Sabah and Sarawak, Hadi realised that the number of non-Malays outnumbered that of the Malays,” the article read.
It went on to add that to pacify Hadi, Anwar had to offer the prime minister’s post to a ‘Mr X’ who could bring in more Malay-Muslim MPs.
“By then it was too late. Pak Lah (former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) had already announced that he would resign, so the ‘mood’ to defect (was no longer there) and BN had used other tactics (to prevent) defections during the time wasted (haggling over the Malay-Muslim issue),” the news report said.
“The PAS president conspired in ensuring that the Sept 16 takeover plan collapsed by giving shallow excuses.”
Web of deceit
Since wresting five of the country’s 13 states in the March 2008 general elections, Pakatan has been the top target of arch rival Umno, which has unleashed all ways and means to impede Anwar and his team.
One of their top tactics has been to ridicule the 63-year leader over his failed September 16 bid to take over the federal government.
Anwar has apologized for the debacle, conceding that he could not sustain the interest of the BN MPs although they had initially wanted to defect to Pakatan. He has never divulged any further details.
“As far as we are concerned, this is just another unsubstantiated claim by another news portal or blogger. We will not bother to dignify it further,” Dr Hatta Ramli, PAS treasurer and central committee member, told Harakahdaily.
“I think Malaysians know only too well how hard Umno has been coming after PAS, PKR and DAP. They can judge for themselves what is true and what are sheer lies.”
