KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Lim Kit Siang refused today to continue debating with PAS over the death or survival of Pakatan Rakyat (PR), saying it was baffling that the Islamist party’s president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang still considers the pact intact when he had been the allege cause of its split.
Lim noted that since PAS decided in its recent muktamar to end ties with the DAP, its leaders have been at loggerheads over whether this meant that PR was no longer a functioning coalition.
For example, the DAP veteran pointed out that Hadi’s claim yesterday that PR was still alive contradicted Dewan Ulama chief president Datuk Dr Mahfodz Mohamed’s statement earlier in the day that he did not regret the muktamar decision although it led to the pact’s dissolution.
“As the new PAS leadership seems to be at loggerheads with each other as to whether the PAS Muktamar motion has led to the dissolution of Pakatan Rakyat, I have no interest of intervening in their different interpretations,” Lim said in a statement here.
“But I find it strange that Hadi is claiming that PR is not dead when for the past year he had singly destroyed PR by violating the PR Common Policy Framework as well as the PR consensus operational principle.
“As a result, the PR Leadership Council has not been able to function for the past year, resulting in PR existing only in name but not in fact,” he added.
Lim, who was the first DAP leader to declare PR dead after PAS’s muktamar decision on June 6, said it was now time to chart a course for the future.
“We want to move on and keep faith with the hopes of Malaysians for change in the 13GE to ensure that although there is no more Pakatan Rakyat, the PR Common Policy Framework of national unity, justice and prosperity of Malaysians remain achievable goals in 14 GE,” he said, using the initials for general election.
Yesterday, Hadi was quoted in Bernama as insisting that PR was still a functioning opposition front, despite the DAP’s declaration that the pact was no more.
He said DAP’s statement was a personal an “inaccurate” one as one single member party cannot declare the pact dead.
PAS election director Datuk Mustafa Ali was also quoted in media reports as saying yesterday that the Islamist party will continue to work with PKR to keep PR alive, saying that the coalition is not dead and merely “pengsan” ― the Malay word for fainted.
Earlier this week, PKR said PR has ceased to “function formally” as a coalition, following “hasty” decisions made by DAP and PAS.
In a statement, PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said her party regretted PAS’ muktamar resolution to cut ties with the DAP as well as the DAP’s declaration that their three-party partnership was over.
