Utusan: Mat Sabu’s group just Malay wing of DAP
Sceptical of splinter parties, but Awang Selamat says defeated progressives should just leave PAS
(Free Malaysia Today) – Defeated PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu and his group of progressive and professional PAS members should just leave the party, said Utusan Malaysia editors today.
Awang Selamat, the group pseudonym of Utusan editors, said in his weekly column that it would be appropriate for Mat Sabu “and the rest of his gang rejected at the party elections” to just leave the party.
Mat Sabu and other PAS leaders said to be friendly with Pakatan Rakyat partners PKR and the DAP were swept out of the party’s central working committee at the party elections earlier this month.
A slate of candidates backed by the ulama faction have taken control of the party, leading to the adoption of a motion to sever relationships with the DAP, which has opposed the ulama-backed moves to enforce hudud Islamic criminal penalties in Kelantan.
A group of PAS supporters in the PasMa movement have since announced plans to form a new political party.
Awang Selamat said he was sceptical of splinter parties, and said the PasMa group’s new party would be nothing more than a Muslim-Malay wing of the DAP.
“It will bring a smile to Guan Eng’s face,” said Awang, referring to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who is a close friend of Mat Sabu since they were both detained under the Internal Security Act.
Lim had declared an end to the Pakatan coalition on Tuesday. Awang Selamat, however, remained sceptical of the turmoil in the opposition pact. “Everything is still new, the embers might not necessarily turn into flames,” he wrote.
