After losses, Pakatan extends olive branch to PAS
(MMO) – After bruising defeats in the Sarawak polls and two by-elections, Pakatan Harapan leaders say they’re ready to discuss the possibility of teaming up with PAS, although the Islamist party and the DAP will not likely be in a formal coalition.
DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke Siew Fook said the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections clearly showed the people’s desire to see “a united opposition” that would take on the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) in straight contests in the next general elections due by 2018.
“We have decided to take a humble approach. I think PAS had also realised that they are no longer as strong as they used to be in 2013,” he told Malay Mail Online.
“I don’t think we will be in a coalition because of our ideological differences. But the idea is to agree that we have a strategy for the next elections against BN,” added the Seremban MP.
PAS deputy president Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man yesterday mooted a “ceasefire” between his party and Pakatan Harapan — which comprises PKR, the DAP and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) — after the by-elections in Perak and Selangor last month saw BN winning with overwhelming majorities due to PAS and Amanah splitting the votes.
Loke however said that it “remains to be seen” if Tuan Ibrahim’s statement represented the party stand officially.
The fallout between the DAP and PAS last year over the Islamist opposition party’s insistence on enforcing hudud law in Kelantan had led to the collapse of the previous Pakatan Rakyat coalition comprising PKR, PAS and the DAP. Pakatan Harapan was later formed with PAS being replaced by Amanah, a party comprising progressives who left PAS.
PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has repeatedly attacked the DAP and, as recently as May this year, accused the predominantly Chinese party of being anti-Islam.
Other Pakatan Harapan leaders said the recent results of the two by-elections and the Sarawak state elections, in which BN won 72 out of 82 state seats contested, served as a “wake up call” for the opposition to ensure they start cooperating.
“Definitely it’s clear after Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar. The Sarawak election, we did not (do) too well, but that was our fault,” said PKR’s Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, who is also Pakatan Harapan secretariat chief.
“But in Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar, we were united (within Pakatan), and yet the results were not satisfactory,” he added.
Saifuddin said it was important to have a “new arrangement” in place for the 14th general elections, which could be “Pakatan plus PAS or Pakatan plus PAS and other parties”.
