Rafizi demands PAS discipline researcher over ‘racial’ WhatsApp remarks
(Malay Mail Online) – PKR’s Rafizi Ramli bared his fangs at a PAS ally today in a sign of a widening rift within Pakatan Rakyat (PR) over the protracted Selangor mentri besar saga.
The PKR strategy director demanded the Islamist party discipline Dr Zuhdi Marzuki, accusing the PAS central committee member of making racial and hate-filled remarks that betrayed the PR consensus in his leaked WhatsApp conversation on the Selangor MB issue.
“What disciplinary action will PAS take against Dr Zuhdi Marzuki for voicing a suggestion that betrays the agreement PAS sealed with Pakatan Rakyat and the people who voted PAS/Pakatan Rakyat?” Rafizi asked in a statement.
In a WhatsApp group conversation among PAS leaders that was leaked and circulated online yesterday, Zuhdi suggested the party leave its PR allies and join political foe Umno to retain Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim as Selangor mentri besar.
In the leaked remarks, Zuhdi had concluded that PAS’ continued hold of power in the Selangor government through cooperation with Umno would enable them to shrug off the complaints by several groups including DAP and non-Muslims.
Rafizi claimed Zuhdi’s suggestion circumnavigated the electoral process, which he argued was against their pact’s policies and agreements, which included a previous decision to reject any partnership with Umno that could result in a “unity government”.
Zuhdi later explained on his Facebook page that his WhatsApp remarks were only his conjectures of several scenarios, but Rafizi insisted the comments smacked of “hate and the spirit of racialism”.
Rafizi added that Zuhdi’s remarks also amounted to approval of the Selangor Islamic Religious Department’s (Jais) actions towards non-Muslims.
Jais had previously carried out a raid on a church in Selangor and this January seized over 300 copies of bibles, besides interrupting a wedding at a Hindu temple last month upon suspicion that the bride was Muslim.
Criticising Zuhdi for allegedly going against PR’s common policy framework to uphold justice for all races and reject racism, Rafizi also pressed Hadi to disclose how many among his party leadership shared similar “anti-democratic” and racial views.
In his Facebook posting yesterday to clarify the leaked remarks, Zuhdi said that at least 10 of the PAS central committee members in the conversation had supported a proposal for the party to quit PR.
But he stressed that he did not back such a move, explaining that he had provided the analysis — of PAS’s position in the event it left PR — upon the request of other leaders.
Zuhdi further defended himself as having used “imaginative language” to describe the likely results of PAS quitting the pact, including regaining its freedom to deal with DAP and others.
