DAP-PAS row puts PR on verge of collapse

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia’s three-party opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) looks to be on the verge of collapse following the Democratic Action Party’s (DAP) decision to sever ties with Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) president Abdul Hadi Awang, as both parties traded barbs publicly yesterday.

After a Central Executive Committee meeting on Monday night, the DAP emerged saying it could no longer work with Mr Hadi, accusing him of being dishonest and dishonourable for breaking promises and cooperating with the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party in violation of the PR’s common policy framework.

“As Hadi is the PAS leader in PR, the DAP’s decision to end all ties with Hadi will effectively put the PR leadership council in limbo,” said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng yesterday. He added that the DAP will meet the leaders of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), the third party in the pact, to discuss its future.

Explaining the DAP’s reasons for ending ties with Mr Hadi, Mr Lim said the PAS leader had betrayed the collective decision made by the PR leadership council on three occasions. The first was over the nomination of the new Chief Minister for Selangor last year. The other two occasions relate to PAS’ moves in the past two months to implement hudud, or Islamic criminal law, in the state of Kelantan, which it rules.

The DAP’s decision was roundly criticised by several PAS leaders yesterday. The Islamist party’s secretary-general Mustafa Ali called its coalition partner childish and immature.

“The DAP should be the one to leave PR, not PAS,” said PAS vice-president Ibrahim Tuan Man. The party’s information chief Mahfuz Omar, on the other hand, dismissed the DAP’s claims as baseless and untrue.

“Applying for a private member’s Bill does not mean he is working with UMNO,” he told a press conference yesterday, referring to Mr Hadi’s expected move to table a private member’s Bill in Parliament to amend the

country’s Constitution, so hudud can be incorporated into Kelantan’s Syariah laws.

Last Thursday, PAS paved the way for the implementation of hudud in Kelantan after the State Legislative Assembly unanimously passed amendments to its Syariah Criminal Code. All 12 UMNO state lawmakers voted for the amendments last week, but the ruling party’s national leadership has yet to declare whether the same support will be given to PAS’ hudud ambition in Parliament.

Other PAS leaders struck a more conciliatory note yesterday. “The best way is for the Pakatan Rakyat leadership to meet immediately and find a common ground to stay together,” PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu said in a statement yesterday.

“No matter how critical the current situation is, I am confident, if we set our minds to be together in Pakatan Rakyat, we will definitely find a solution to the current situation,” he said.

With its two coalition partners at loggerheads, PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali said Mr Hadi should be given a chance to explain why he had turned his back on the PR’s common policy.

Dr Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow of the Malaysian Programme at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told TODAY that the public spat between the DAP and PAS might not necessarily lead to the PR pact splitting up.

“This is just grand posturing by the two PR component parties, mostly to appease their respective hard-core constituencies: The DAP has to act tough on behalf of its mostly non-Muslim supporters; PAS has to similarly put up a tough face in front of its mostly conservative supporters,” he said.

Dr Oh added that UMNO would continue to woo PAS into the ruling Barisan Nasional fold by dangling the appeal of a grand Malay solidarity.

“The free-for-all season will continue for a while, with UMNO also entangled in factional infighting,” he said. AGENCIES