Guan Eng denies DAP at war with PAS

The DAP secretary-general was responding to the public spat between his party chairman Karpal Singh and PAS heavyweight Nasharuddin Mat Isa over hudud.

Syed Jaymal Zahiid, FMT

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng today denied that his party is at war with its Islamic ally PAS over hudud.

“No, its business as usual,” said the Penang chief minister when asked by reporters if the public spat between DAP chairman Karpal Singh and former PAS No 2 Nasharuddin Mat Isa had driven a deeper wedge between the two parties.

Karpal is mulling to sue Nasharuddin after he accused the DAP leader’s staunch anti-hudud stand as being “anti-Islam”.

The hatchet over PAS’ plan to implement the controversial Islamic penal law was again unearthed after Nasharuddin criticised the party for what he described as a subservient posture and said he would continue to speak out on the subject.

Nasharuddin had first made the statement during a controversial meeting with Saudi Arabia’s ulamas in the presence of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and repeated his criticism upon returning to Malaysia two weeks ago.

The meeting drew accusations of disloyalty from within PAS since Nasharuddin had suggested that he was prepared to break ranks in pursuit of implementing hudud.

Some claimed that the former PAS deputy president’s statement was aimed at creating internal friction and was engineered by Umno.

The federal opposition bloc had been forced to contain the damage over the long-standing hudud debate several times following PAS’ insistence that the law would remain as part of its core agenda.

The pact then agreed that hudud was no longer an issue after the Islamist party said it would respect the Common Policy Framework that excluded implementing the Islamic penal law.

Lim said Karpal’s plan to sue Nasharuddin was done on his own accord and had nothing to do with the party.

“I think we should just leave what Karpal said to himself,” he added.