With progressives out, PAS to field non-Muslims in DAP seats, says party leader
(TMI) – Non-Muslim PAS candidates going up against rivals from DAP is a scenario that voters can expect in the next general election, a party leader said, as the Islamist opposition deals with a splinter movement in its ranks.
This likelihood was spelled out by PAS’s new election director Datuk Mustafa Ali when he talked about his party’s future as it prepares to lose its most influential members and personalities.
A faction of PAS members dubbed “the progressives” have launched the New Hope Movement (GHB), with plans to turn it into a formal political party sometime this year.
The expectation is that this party would join DAP and PKR to form a new opposition coalition that is likely to exclude PAS, following a fallout between the Islamist party and DAP that marked the end of the Pakatan Rakyat pact.
PAS is prepared to go it alone, Mustafa, a former party secretary-general, told The Malaysian Insider.
He stressed that PAS would never join forces with Umno or Barisan Nasional (BN), despite rumours that it would do so.
“The feeling now is that PAS will be alone. We will empower our PAS supporters’ wing. So Malaysians will see more non-Muslim candidates being fielded by PAS in elections.
“Since we won’t be constrained by any ties in any coalition, we will be free to contest in all seats, including DAP seats,” Mustafa told The Malaysian Insider.
