PKR “not as great”, latching on support from some Pas members

(NST) – Permatang Pauh Pas Youth members want the vacant parliamentary seat to be contested by a Pas candidate in the looming by-election on May 7.

In a statement issued today, they claimed that PKR was “not as great” and was only latching on the machinery and support from Pas members who had strong Islamic fundamentals.

They said PKR’s resistance against hudud would not bode well for the party in the ‘orang mengaji’ (religious folks) majority area of Permatang Pauh.

“PKR has issued many statements disagreeing with the implementation of hudud. Does PKR know that the voters’ demographics in Permatang Pauh are mostly pious?

“Not agreeing with hudud will bring severe consequences. Wise voters will act smartly in the by-election to PKR, who are against hudud which were the struggles of Pas members,” the statement said.

They claimed that opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim won in the 13th General Election with a majority of 11,721, and the success should be credited to Pas.

In citing in an example, they said Pas won with a majority of 58.7 per cent or 6,826 votes in the Permatang Pasir state seat, while PKR only won the Seberang Jaya and Penanti state seats with a majority of 21.1 percent (2,459 votes) and 20.2 per cent (2,339 votes) respectively.

“The biggest contributors to Anwar’s win is Pas. The Permatang Pauh Parliamentary seat is traditionally contested by Pas against Barisan Nasional and if Pas contested in this by-election, Pas will repeat the success it did in 1978 and we will soar among Malay voters.”

They suggested that the party’s deputy president Mohamad Sabu (pic) was the best candidate for the seat, describing him as mature and experienced.

The Youth members said PKR had suffered “total damage” after the engineered Kajang Move, including several other moves which did not see light.

Taking a jab at PKR Youth, they said Pas had “lost its trust” towards them after they had issued a statement to for Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to step down as Pas president.

“Up until now, they have not retracted that statement. Tarnishing the image and dignity of our president means tarnishing ours too.

“PKR must either issue a statement to direct the PKR parliamentarians to support hudud, Penang PKR Youth issue an open press statement to apologise for the remark made by deputy Youth chief or return the Permatang Pauh seat to Pas,” they said.