KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — PAS has signalled it is not beyond reverting to racial politics to shore up support, its former allies said in response to the Islamist party president’s recent reported call for Muslims to unite against the DAP.

Whether Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s purported message will resound with Muslims in the country today or not is yet to be seen, but Pakatan Harapan MPs said it was still dangerous because it sought to polarise Malaysia’s multiracial peoples instead of bridging differences at a challenging time.

Parti Amanah Negara communications director Khalid Samad said he was disappointed because he believed PAS’s former leaders like the late Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat and the late Datuk Fadzil Muhammad Noor had tried to steer the Malay-Muslim community away from racism.

“They had strived to free Malay-Muslims from racial politics, and to foster principles of justice and anti-corruption and anti-racism,” the Shah Alam MP said outside the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

“This is an obvious realignment of PAS that is clear, and it is the best proof to justify the need to establish Parti Amanah Negara,” he added.

DAP’s Anthony Loke said that Hadi’s statement was vindictive and aimed at increasing tension between the Muslim community who are predominantly Malay against the predominantly Chinese opposition party.

“I think this whole thing just shows they have vengeance against the DAP,” he told Malay Mail Online when met at the Dewan Rakyat lobby.

The Seremban MP said the PAS leader was trying to rattle conservative Muslims into believing, wrongly, that their religion and their practise of it may be impacted if the DAP gains federal power.

“DAP has no means to take power on its own. We are part of a coalition. And Pakatan Harapan is a multiracial, multireligious coalition that is not led by DAP. We are just part of the larger coalition.

“We don’t even contest in half of the parliamentary seats, so how can we take federal power? So all this trap is just a way of creating fear among the Malay electorate,” he added.

PKR MP Sim Tze Tzin said he would give Hadi the benefit of the doubt of a possible misquote in his statement, because he believes Islam teaches justice regardless of race.

“If true [that he made this statement] then this isn’t the PAS that we all know.

“I think Malaysians are looking for a leader who will uphold justice for everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims alike,” he told Malay Mail Online.

But the Bayan Baru MP also expressed confidence that Muslims in the country would not fall for misleading ideologies.

“DAP, to their credit, has been trying to make the party more multiracial and they have successfully attracted a few Malay-Muslims, and I hope they will achieve it,” he added.

Umno-owned Malay broadsheet Utusan Malaysia had quoted Hadi yesterday as saying that the predominantly Chinese DAP has no right to form the ruling government as Muslims outnumber ethnic Chinese in Malaysia.

Hadi reportedly called on the Muslim community to unite to “ensure that this country continues to be ruled by Malays.”

PAS parted ways with DAP last year after a fallout over its hudud ambition, leading to the breakup of the three-way Pakatan Rakyat pact that also included PKR.

It has since formed a new opposition partnership with Parti Ikatan Bangsa and flirted with the idea of a political co-operation with former parent party Umno in a move seemingly aimed at consolidating conservative Malay political power.