‘PKR will welcome suspended PAS duo’

(The Rakyat Post)  – There is space in PKR for the two PAS assemblymen who were suspended from their party for pledging their support for PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail for the Selangor Menteri Besar post.

PKR central committee member and Sri Andalas assemblyman Dr Xavier Jayakumar said this when commenting on the one-year suspension of assemblyman Saari Sungib and Hasnol Baharuddin, of Hulu Kelang and Morib respectively, announced today by PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali.

“As far as I can see, they are left without a party, which means they have to decide on their future.

“What they did was save PR and they stayed true to the coalition. We will welcome them to join us if that is what they want. It’s up to them.

“We will not discriminate them,” Xavier told The Rakyat Post.

Saari and Hasnol had previously aligned themselves with DAP and PKR, granting Dr Wan Azizah the majority in the state assembly by stepping outside PAS’ decision to support former Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

However, despite this, the Sultan of Selangor later appointed PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali for the post when Abdul Khalid’s resignation was finally put into effect.

Saari and Hasnol, who said they were prepared to accept whatever punishments that came their way for their actions, have received brickbats from many PAS leaders since then, most obviously during PAS’ recent muktamar.

During the muktamar, some party delegates had voiced the possibility of PAS leaving the PR coalition over the matter, though PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said it was not enough to end the tahaluf siyasi (political cooperation) between his party, PKR and DAP.

Despite this, in his winding up speech, Abdul Hadi used harsh words to describe “traitors” and those who had served as “middle-men”.