DAP leaders deny attacks on Hadi ploy to manipulate PAS polls

KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — DAP leaders denied today its attacks against Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang were a strategy to move PAS members towards replacing the Islamist party’s president during its internal elections in June.

The DAP MPs stressed that the party only severed ties with an “uncooperative” Hadi, and that PAS members should decide for themselves whether they wanted someone like Hadi to lead PAS in the future.

“We can’t influence how PAS members vote. All we have done is that we declared that it is very difficult to work with Hadi. It is up to PAS members to decide,” Serdang MP Dr Ong Kian Ming told reporters when met at the Parliament lobby.

DAP’s Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari echoed his colleague’s views, saying his party was not trying to sway PAS.

“Let the party solve their own problems. We are not influencing them,” he said

PAS’s Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi has accused the DAP of subterfuge in its decision to cut ties with Hadi but not the Islamist party.

The Islamist party’s central committee member further claimed the DAP’s actions over the ongoing hudud debacle to be pretext in order to win favour with potential candidates in PAS who are friendly to the predominantly Chinese party and stand a chance to take over from Hadi at the June party polls.

“My conclusion is that DAP does not want a leader who refuses to follow their beat and wishes like Tuan Guru Haji Abdul Hadi Awang. Instead the DAP wants a leader or PAS president who can follow their wishes,” Nasruddin said in a statement yesterday.

Nasrudin also warned that the DAP was playing into the hands of its political foes with its latest move, which would endanger the whole Pakatan Rakyat federal opposition pact.

Ties between the two parties appear to be at breaking point after the DAP issued a stinging statement rebuking Hadi for being “dishonest” over the hudud issue, while reaffirming its commitment to the PR political pact.

The rebuke prompted PAS leaders to rally to their president’s defence, telling DAP to leave PR if it is unable to accept hudud or Hadi’s leadership of the Islamist party.

DAP’s move also puts the three-party pact in a conundrum as the PR presidential council will not be able to carry out any policy decisions as consensus agreement is required, but will leave the state administrations of Selangor and Penang undisturbed.