Gerakan to take prime minister candidate issue to PN Supreme Council
Party president Dominic Lau says the differences in opinion among Perikatan Nasional’s partners need to be resolved by the top leadership.
(FMT) – Gerakan will raise the issue of Perikatan Nasional’s prime ministerial candidate at the coalition’s upcoming Supreme Council meeting, says its president, Dominic Lau.
Lau, a PN deputy chairman, said the Supreme Council meeting serves as a platform to discuss “hot topics” and for component parties to resolve their differences among themselves.
“This includes PAS’s recent comments that there is no need to issue a declaration about the rights of non-Malays, and the debate on the prime ministerial candidate,” he told reporters after Gerakan’s Deepavali celebration here today.
“These are differences in opinion that need to be resolved.”
On Friday, PAS spiritual adviser Hashim Jasin called for negotiations to be held over the post of PN chairman after stating that PAS is more qualified to lead the coalition.
PAS is the largest party in PN with 43 parliamentary seats, and it also helms the government in four states.
Lau and Bersatu Supreme Council member Wan Saiful Wan Jan have reiterated their support for PN chairman and Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin to continue to head the coalition and be its candidate for the prime minister’s position.
However, Lau said the disagreement over the coalition’s “poster boy” for the next general election would not affect ties among the PN component parties as such differences were common in any coalition.
He said while he was not sure if Hashim’s views were his own or if they represented PAS, he should not have aired such opinions to the media.
“But since he has already done so, Gerakan has also made our views clear,” he said.
Lau also said the country’s political dynamics were no longer based on the dominance of one party, and the selection of a prime ministerial candidate should not be based on a party’s parliamentary seats, but a leader’s ability to command the majority in Parliament.
