KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 — Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia has accused Perikatan Nasional (PN) of trying to “play the victim” in the coalition’s deepening internal crisis, saying its leadership should answer allegations against it with facts and documents rather than portray itself as being unfairly targeted.

Bersatu information chief Datuk Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz said PN should not push narratives unsupported by evidence or suggest that others were acting cowardly or oppressing the coalition without justification.

“PN secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan needs to answer whether it is true that Bersatu lodged complaints over the management of the coalition,” he said in a statement last night.

“There is no need to spin the issue. Just rebut, one by one, the complaints raised by Bersatu, as conveyed by the Registrar of Societies to Takiyuddin, with evidence.”

Tun Faisal said that if PAS, which administers PN, had not breached the coalition’s constitution, its leaders should produce the relevant meeting minutes, correspondence and other documents.

“If PAS, as the administrator of PN, did not commit any breach of the PN constitution, then simply provide the explanations, meeting minutes, correspondence and relevant documents to rebut each allegation,” he said.

“If he has them, answer the RoS without making so many excuses. That would be courageous.”

The remarks were aimed at Takiyuddin, who had described Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as cowardly for allegedly failing to raise the party’s grievances clearly and officially with PN.

Takiyuddin, who is also PAS secretary-general, had likened the move to “throwing a stone and hiding the hand”, while saying PN had sought a judicial review of action taken against the coalition by the Registrar of Societies.

Tun Faisal rejected the criticism and turned the accusation back on PN’s leadership, saying cowardice was a more fitting description for administrators who, in his view, had failed to convene meetings and face disputes with component parties openly.

“Do not talk about courage if chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar and PN’s administrators do not dare face their own component party. This is the real cowardice,” he said.

He also accused PAS of repeatedly breaching PN’s constitution, disregarding decisions of the coalition’s supreme council and denying Bersatu its rights as a member.

The latest exchange comes amid a wider dispute that has drawn intervention from the Registrar of Societies.

On September 22, the RoS issued PN with a notice seeking an explanation over complaints reportedly lodged by Bersatu. The following day, the regulator suspended all of PN’s activities under subsection 13(2A) of the Societies Act 1966.

The action has since become the subject of a court challenge, with PN seeking judicial review of the RoS notices.

The row has also exposed increasingly bitter tensions between PAS and Bersatu, the two main parties in PN, with both sides trading accusations over how the coalition has been managed and whether decisions taken by its leadership complied with its own constitution.