PAKATAN Harapan (PH) secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has slammed PAS for its “ever-changing” principles, pointing out how the Islamic party was “friends” with DAP during the Barisan Alternatif and Pakatan Rakyat coalition days.
The Home Minister said back then, PAS used to call DAP a party that has “contributed much to the nation”, but when they left the coalition, DAP became “the enemy of Islam”.
“If DAP is the enemy of Islam, can [PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang] explain why he befriended DAP in 1999 all the way to 2015? Was Hadi making friends with the enemy of Islam during that period?” he said to FMT.
Barisan Alternatif was formed in 1999 comprising PAS, DAP and the then Parti Keadilan Nasional, which would later become PKR. The coalition disbanded in 2001 after DAP announced its withdrawal.
PAS, DAP and PKR then became allies again under Pakatan Rakyat and contested together in the 2013 general election before the coalition broke up in 2015.
Saifuddin went on to describe PAS as the “problem” when joining coalitions or after forging alliances with other parties as PAS would always be the one to eventually “leave” these alliances.
“This means that PAS is the problem, not the other parties. PAS can say that it doesn’t sacrifice its principles, but the reality is that every time they make friends with other parties, they will eventually quit the alliance,” he was quoted as saying by the news portal.
Saifuddin was responding to news of Hadi saying yesterday (March 17) that PAS was ready to work with other political parties but will not hesitate to pull its support for those that poses a threat to its Islamic principles.
In a Facebook posting, the Marang MP had further insisted that the party was neither a political “halfway house” or a pushover, and that it would not be used by others for position, power, or wealth.
Saifuddin’s stinging statement of PAS also echoed that of UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who recently chided Hadi by saying that PAS, like it had in the past, would eventually leave its current coalition Perikatan Nasional (PN) and ally Bersatu.
Zahid said that the Islamic party has a tendency to abandon partners every time it joins any political coalition, just like it did in Muafakat Nasional (MN) which united UMNO and PAS.
The two largest Malay-based parties formed MN as an electoral pact aimed at uniting the Malay-Muslim vote in September 2019.
However, ties between the two parties became increasingly strained after PAS joined forces with Bersatu to form Perikatan Nasional when Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was the prime minister. – May 18, 2023
