Mahathir suggests PAS took ‘dedak’
Ex-premier says those who block straight fights with BN are really supporters of Najib Razak’s government
(FMT) – Any possibility of PAS joining hands to fight Barisan Nasional at the next general election may have gone down the drain today after Dr Mahathir Mohamad as good as accused the party of having taken “dedak”.
Speaking to more than 1,000 people attending Pakatan Harapan’s first convention, the former premier said that any party who stood in the way of the opposition’s goal to ensure straight fights with the BN was in reality a supporter of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government.
Mahathir, who is chairman of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, did not name the party. However, PAS has not agreed to an electoral alliance with DAP, PKR, and Amanah against the BN.
“They claimed to be fighting for the Malays. Actually they are supporting Najib. Perhaps they have received dedak (a euphemism often used to describe bribes),” said Mahathir.
“You can’t say that you don’t want to join Pakatan because DAP is one of its component parties. That is not the real reason.”
The Pakatan Rakyat alliance of PAS, the DAP and PKR collapsed last year after an open rift between PAS and the DAP and PAS leaders have since said the party would never work with DAP again.
The DAP and PKR formed the Pakatan Harapan alliance with Parti Amanah Negara, formed by former PAS dissidents.
PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin had, since the party was formed in Sept, attempted to forge an alliance with PAS, in the hope that the Islamist party would then join Pakatan in their fight against Najib and the BN government.
PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang however had time and time again, stated that the party would not “repeat the mistake of working with DAP”.
This was as DAP has been PAS’ biggest opponent in its aim to implement hudud law in Kelantan, a disagreement which last year led to the demise of Pakatan Rakyat.
Dr Mahathir said today that he “used to be (DAP leader) Lim Kit Siang’s biggest enemy. But that is a small matter compared to the efforts to topple the country’s main enemy (Najib).
“Forget all our differences as we are facing the biggest threat to our country. Only we can stop Najib from getting the country into more debt, which was the reason Greece went bankrupt,” he said.
He added that the only reason the opposition could not take over Putrajaya in the past was because it failed to put up a united front.
“I won (the elections) many times before and it was not because BN was doing a great job. It was because the Opposition was not strong, and failed to unite.”
