As PAS polls near, Pakatan’s future hangs in the balance
(The Malaysian Insider) – The demise of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) hinges on the PAS elections next week, which will see warring factions compete for control over the Islamist party and ultimately seal the opposition pact’s fate, DAP leaders have said.
They told The Malaysian Insider that the future of the coalition rested on PAS standing by its decision to respect the common policy framework and remaining committed to PR.
But there is concern now that the PAS annual general meeting or muktamar will see Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and his cleric group openly announce that the party would break away from DAP, said Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong.
Delegates of the Islamist party will vote in new office bearers at the muktamar. In the run-up, there has been an ugly online campaign through social media to discredit the faction as “liberal” and in support of continued collaboration with PR.
“Rumours are going around that Hadi will make a speech in the muktamar to break away from DAP,” he said when met at the Parliament lobby yesterday.
“DAP is now the punching bag because PAS didn’t succeed in its push for Hudud,” he said.
He said the onus was on PAS to decide whether it wanted to win Putrajaya with its partners, or settle for being a Kelantan party and possibly even cooperate with Umno.
“A lot of bickering is happening because certain sections in the PAS leadership think they only have to secure Kelantan, their base. These people don’t mind working with Umno,” said Lew.
Meanwhile, fears that PR would split up were being felt keenly by both DAP and people on the ground, Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari (pic) said.
Zairil said Lim Kit Siang’s warning on Sunday that PR may break apart within two weeks’ time was not just the latter’s personal opinion, but feedback received from the people.
“People are upset that they have given us strong support in the last general election on the premise of a common manifesto, and suddenly we don’t appear to be abiding by what our manifesto was.
“Suddenly you’re trying to do things that weren’t in the manifesto, not mutually agreed among all parties,” said Zairil.
