PAS Youth Gives DAP Five Days To Wrangle Apology From Karpal

(MM) – PAS Youth renewed today its call on Karpal Singh to apologise for allegedly suggesting the de-registration of PAS, even giving the DAP veteran a five-day deadline to respond to its demand.

In a media statement here, the wing’s vice-chief Dr Raja Ahmad Iskandar Al-Hiss said the transcript of Karpal’s remarks to the press on November 5 had proven that the senior politician had indeed lumped PAS in the category of “race-based” parties that should be dissolved.

“Operating along religious, racial lines, is a very dangerous thing in a multi-racial and a multi-religious society like ours. I think the time has come perhaps for all racial parties to be deregistered, that will include unfortunately even PAS.

“We have to be practical, we have to be practical, if we want a united country then we must have parties which are multi-racial,” Karpal had purportedly said that day, according to a transcript of the press conference that Raja Ahmad attached to his statement today.

Citing this, the PAS leader said Karpal should not only apologise but should also retract remarks he reportedly made yesterday in a media statement.

According to a copy of the statement provided today, Karpal had reportedly said:

“Any citizen in the country in his right mind would not disagree with me that there should be no place for political parties based on racial or religious considerations in a multi-racial and multi-religious society like Malaysia and that ultimately there should be complete eradication from its political turf of political parties based on racial or religious considerations.”

In demanding the apology, Raja Ahmad said it was made with due consideration to the resolutions passed at two PAS muktamars – in Ipoh in 2008, and the 2010 session in Kelantan – whereby delegates supported the party’s stand to uphold its Islamist ideology while establishing a relationship with its multiracial partners in Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

The resolutions had also included seeking cooperation from PAS’s PR partners DAP and PKR to respect PAS’s Islamic struggle and not to raise matters that could affect these sensitivities.

“Therefore we from PAS Youth request that the DAP leadership instruct Karpal Singh to apologise to PAS and retract his latest remarks,” he said, before issuing a five-day deadline on the DAP leader.

The Islamist party’s youth wing had first demanded the apology from Karpal on November 6, a day after his alleged de-register call, saying that the veteran politician should not equate PAS to other religious or race-based political or professional bodies.

“We, from Federal Territories PAS, hope that Karpal retracts his statement and makes a public apology, especially to PAS. We do not want to jeapordise our relations in Pakatan Rakyat,” said its Youth chief Kamaruzaman Mohamad had reportedly said, according to The Star.

Karpal, in his remarks on November 5, had been responding to the warning from the Muslim Lawyers Association (MLA) to the Bar Council over the latter body’s alleged support for the Christians in the “Allah” controversy.

But Karpal had refused to apologise, denying that he had ever called for PAS to be de-registered.