We won’t work with Amanah just yet, PAS veep says

(Malay Mail Online) – PAS will not be working with Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) yet, despite believing that the opposition needs to have a united voice, according to the Islamist party’s vice-president Datuk Iskandar Samad.

However, he said he welcomes PKR’s plan to play the role of “unifier” to strengthen the opposition’s fight against Barisan Nasional (BN).

“We are not saying we will work with Amanah. Not yet,” Iskandar, who is also Selangor PAC commissioner told reporters at PKR’s national congress here.

“[PKR] won’t be treated as the middleman between Amanah and PAS, but more a facilitator among all the opposition parties.

“There needs to be a unified voice, but for now, the situation is clear between [PAS] and Amanah. Nevertheless, the opposition must be united,” he added.

The Pakatan Rakyat pact collapsed earlier this year after founding partners DAP and PAS suffered a fallout. The latter party’s increasingly conservative stand also led to a breakaway faction styling itself as moderate Islamist that subsequently registered itself as a political party under the name Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah).

PKR, DAP and Amanah went on to form the new coalition Pakatan Harapan, with the exclusion of PAS.

Selangor mentri besar and PKR deputy president Azmin Ali had yesterday expressed his confidence in Pakatan Harapan and PAS eventually working together in the future despite the animosity between PAS and Amanah.

PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in her keynote speech during the congress earlier reiterated the stand that PKR needed to play the unifier among the opposition.

“In this challenging environment, even though PKR is only 16-years-old in the national arena of politics, compared to our political allies who have been around for decades, we have nevertheless have taken on the role as ‘unifier’ in determining the future of the people since 2008,” she said.