Be a gentleman and leave Pakatan, Ambiga tells PAS

(Malay Mail Online) – Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan told PAS today to do the “gentlemanly” thing and leave Pakatan Rakyat (PR) after the Islamist opposition party cut ties with its DAP partner.

The former chief of electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0 said it’s up to PAS if the party wants to work with Umno, but stressed that the Islamist party cannot have it both ways in cooperating with the Barisan Nasional (BN) lynchpin and remaining in the PR alliance at the same time.

“If you cannot work with a coalition partner, you do the gentlemanly thing and you leave. You don’t change the rules in the middle of the game and say we’ll cooperate on a different basis,” Ambiga told Malay Mail Online in an interview.

“You can’t have your cake and eat it. That’s exactly what they want. They want to be able to dance with Umno but they want to continue a relationship with Pakatan,” added the president of the National Human Rights Society (Hakam).

The DAP announced today that PR was dead, seven years after the opposition pact was formed in 2008, citing PAS’ decision at its recent muktamar to sever ties with the secular party.

PAS had on June 6 confirmed its decision to sever ties with DAP while still remaining in PR with PKR after its motion to do so was approved without debate, following a row with the DAP over its plan to enforce hudud in Kelantan.

Ambiga said today, however, that it is still possible for PAS to work together with PKR and the DAP in the PR government in Selangor even if they are not in the same coalition, noting that the situation is different in Penang as it is a DAP administration there.

“What Pakatan is going through is growing pains,” she said.

“You have to make sure that the rakyat’s dream of a two-party system and a working democracy does not die. That is the responsibility of the coalition partners of Pakatan Rakyat,” the former Malaysian Bar president added, noting that PKR and the DAP can rope in an offshoot of PAS.

Lobby group Persatuan Ummah Sejahtera (PasMa) told Malay Mail Online today that several federal and state PAS leaders and other activists have started discussions to form a new Islamic party that will replace PAS in a new opposition pact, after the recent PAS party election saw the progressives lose overwhelmingly to the ulama.