GE14 voters told to view PAS as BN ally

DAP is upset that after kicking PAS out of Pakatan Rakyat the Islamic party will not kowtow to Pakatan Harapan

(FMT) – The DAP today called on voters not to consider PAS as an opposition party, but as an ally of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) in the upcoming 14th General Election (GE14).

Its Federal Territories (FT) chairman Tan Kok Wai said people should not be misled into believing there would be a three-cornered fight if a constituency sees a race between candidates from PAS, BN and a Pakatan Harapan (PH) party.

“PAS is not a real opposition party because the party has allied itself with Prime Minister Najib Razak (who is BN chairman),” he said at the FT Pakatan Harapan Convention 2017 here.

“If there is a PAS candidate, an Umno candidate and a candidate from Pakatan Harapan, then that’s still a one-on-one race, not a three-cornered fight.”

He said under these circumstances there will not be any three-cornered fights in the next general election at all where PAS and Umno are both running.

There has been speculation that PAS will join or cooperate with Umno-led BN, especially in the wake of Umno’s apparent willingness to cooperate with PAS over its president Abdul Hadi Awang’s proposed shariah amendments bill in the Dewan Rakyat.

Umno and PAS, the two main parties for Malays in the country, also shared the same stage on issues involving Muslims, such as the oppression of Myanmar’s ethnic Rohingya.

On March 22, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng predicted that PAS was likely to feature in a “BN+1” coalition plan for the upcoming election.

However, on March 25, Hadi said PAS would not join either BN or PH due to conflicting principles and ideals, indicating it would forge ahead alone.

Meanwhile, FT PKR chairman Idris Ahmad said PH should not “waste its time” in trying to win over former allies. He did not mention who these “allies” were.

“We have to have some pride. If we try and win over former friends, the people will think we have no stand,” he said.

“There’s been a lot of news that some of our former friends no longer want to be with DAP or with Keadilan (PKR). What more are we waiting for? We have to be firm and move on.”

Several PAS divisions across the country have passed motions over the past month to urge the party leadership to cut ties with PKR.

PAS vice-president Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah has said the party will decide on whether to maintain its political cooperation with PKR at its annual general assembly from April 28 to May 1 at Kota Sarang Semut in Kedah.