PAS members scrutinise party’s by-elections position

KOTA BAHRU — Opposition Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) began its annual general meeting in Kelantan yesterday with party members scrutinising the Islamist party’s position on the upcoming by-elections in Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar, as well as how it intends to manage fractured relations with other opposition parties.

Observers will also be on the lookout for how PAS leaders feel about what is believed to be warming ties with ruling United Malays National Organisation (Umno), as the youth, women and ulama wings of the party started meeting yesterday evening.

PAS youth chief Nik Abduh Nik Aziz, when kicking off the youth wing assembly, said the party must contest in all the seats that it had given up in favour of former allies Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Democratic Action Party (DAP).

Mr Nik Abduh said that PAS’ former partners had “used” the strength of the Islamist party’s election machinery.

“We have learned our lessons, where the sincere efforts of our members is used by our partners in order to obtain victory, and then abandoned,” he said.

“If the leadership takes the bold step to contest in seats that were all along loaned to PKR and DAP in the last general elections, we promise we will take a thousand steps to ensure PAS’ win.”

The Pakatan Rakyat opposition pact was dissolved last year after a public spat between PAS and DAP over hudud.

The Islamist party tabled a private member’s Bill in Parliament to remove legal barriers to the enforcement of hudud in Kelantan. Punishment under hudud law includes the cutting off of one’s hands for theft, and stoning to death for extramarital sex.

DAP has insisted that hudud was not part of a common policy framework adopted by the opposition parties. DAP and PKR have since formed an alliance with PAS splinter party Amanah called Pakatan Harapan.

Mr Nik Abduh yesterday also dismissed the claim that the Islamic party wants to merge with Umno.

“Good things will be supported, wrong things will be opposed,” he said.

The PAS muktamar, or annual general meeting, comes just before the twin by-elections in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar, which PAS is contesting. The by-elections are being called following the death of incumbents Wan Mohammad Khair-il Wan Ahmad and Noriah Kasnon in a helicopter crash on May 5.

Both constituencies are Malay majority seats.

The central body of the muktamar will start today and end on Saturday, the day before nomination day for the by-elections. AGENCIES