PAS tells PKR to quit Pakatan and join Gagasan

SHAH ALAM: PKR should quit Pakatan Harapan and join the Gagasan bloc if it is interested in working with PAS in the next general election, says Selangor PAS commissioner Sallehen Mukhyi.

He said PAS was ready to listen if PKR had any suggestions on the possible cooperation.

“If PKR is really interested in working with PAS in GE14, it is better for PKR to leave Pakatan and join Gagasan, since PAS has formally cut ties with DAP,” he said when contacted here yesterday.

Sallehen, who is PAS’ central committee leader, said PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s endorsement of PKR-PAS talks showed that he knew PKR could not go far without PAS.

“Maybe from his past experience, he knew that the talks needed to go on,” he said.

It was reported on Saturday that Anwar admitted to endorsing talks between his party and PAS about working together in the elections despite the Pakatan presidential council’s announcement last week to not cooperate with the Islamist party.

Then PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali reportedly said he felt vindicated after being criticised for holding informal talks over an alliance with PAS.

The disagreement between those who want to engage PAS and those who do not revealed a split between Azmin’s faction and that of PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli, who has been vocal against engaging with PAS.

When contacted, PKR’s other vice-president Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin said Anwar’s openness with PAS was based on the need to form a winning formula for the Opposition.

“To say that PKR will not make it without PAS is inappropriate; we cannot shut the door in engaging all quarters,” he said.

On the disagreement in the party over the PKR-PAS talks, Shamsul said difference in opinion was part of democracy and factionalism should be viewed positively.

Since PKR was bound by the Pakatan council’s decision, any formal PKR-PAS talks were now over, he said.

Dr Xavier Jayakumar, who is also a PKR vice-president, was dismayed with the interest and attention over the PAS-PKR talks.

“Don’t recent statements by Umno working with PAS affect MCA, MIC, MyPPP, Gerakan and also parties in Sabah? Does it only affect us?” he asked.

In George Town, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the parties in Pakatan Harapan “should not dream” that PAS would support them, adding that they should brace themselves for three-cornered fights.

“PAS has no ambition to form the government and they are contesting for the sake of contesting,” he said at a press conference in Komtar yesterday.

He noted that PAS had its own hardcore supporters but the possibility of losing was there, even in Kelantan.

Lim, who is one of Pakatan Harapan’s deputy presidents, said he agreed with the stand taken by Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia that a vote for PAS was equivalent to giving a vote to Umno.

He said a discussion would be held among the Pakatan leadership on the issue of having more representation from non-Muslims and those from Sabah and Sarawak.