DAP urged to stop provoking PAS over hudud issue

(The Star) – Pakatan Rakyat could have broken up if PAS had responded to provocation by the DAP, especially its top leaders, an MP from the Islamist party said.

Pasir Mas MP Nik Abduh Nik Aziz (pic) said DAP’s attacks on PAS had no basis and hoped the top leaders would stop their attacks.

“If those lower down make the attacks, we can’t say anything. But these attacks are from the top leadership…it’s a waste,” he told reporters when approached in Parliament Wednesday.

“If PAS had retaliated, then Pakatan Rakyat could have broken up,” he added.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang had earlier said Pakatan was on the “brink of destruction” because a unity government between PAS and Umno could become a real possibility in two weeks.

“Our president has mentioned a countless number of times that there will be no unity government. He had made a suggestion before of a government without opposition, not of PAS and BN (Barisan Nasional),” Nik Abduh said.

Nik Abduh said he believed that PAS would not leave Pakatan despite the provocation.

Asked if this provocation would affect the ulama faction in the party, Nik Abduh said the attacks might even strengthen them.

He also hoped top leaders in Pakatan Rakyat would meet and discuss the situation so that the Opposition coalition remained intact.

The thorn in PAS-DAP ties stems from the Islamist party’s insistence on implementing hudud laws in Kelantan.

Nik Abduh said the hudud issue should not break up Pakatan, as it was not cruel.

“We are together because we are fighting cruelty… hudud is about justice,” he said.