Splinter party won't affect PAS, claims Youth chief

KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — The formation of a breakaway party by disgruntled PAS members will not have a lasting effect on the Islamist party, its new Youth wing chief said today.

Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz said they had already expected Persatuan Ummah Sejahtera Malaysia (PasMa) would form a new political party, but are confident that it will have at the most a minimal impact on PAS.

“To say zero (impact), no, because most of PasMa’s supporters are from PAS,” he said when met at Parliament’s lobby.

“But the commitment from PAS members at our recent muktamar gives us confidence there won’t be a big effect,” he added, referring to the party’s recent general assembly.

On Saturday, PasMa suggested that a new opposition partnership comprising DAP, PKR and a new political party to replace PAS be formed.

PasMa president Datuk Phahrolrazi Zawawi claimed that PAS has suffered irreversible damage to its reputation with the exclusion of the professionals in its latest internal election, which was compounded by the Islamist party’s decision to cut ties with its DAP ally.

Phahrolrazi said the only way forward for the opposition parties to go toe-to-toe against the Barisan Nasional ruling coalition in the next general polls was to form a new alliance, with a new political party to take PAS’ old spot.

Nik Abduh today was mum when asked how PAS will react if the new political party mooted by PasMa is accepted into the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact, saying that he will reserve comment until the deed is done.

“I will answer after they are formed, otherwise they might end up not being formed,” he said when asked how the new party will effect already fragile relations between PAS and its two PR allies.

PAS had on June 6 confirmed its decision to sever ties with DAP while still remaining in PR with PKR, after its motion to do so was approved without debate.

The two parties have been openly hostile over PAS’s ambition to enforce hudud in Kelantan.

The development drove DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang to declare PR dead and awaiting “funeral rites.”