KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — PAS’s collaboration with Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia (Ikatan) will remove an unnamed rival’s stranglehold on Malaysians’ aspirations for reforms, the Islamist party’s information chief said today.
In apparent reference to the Pakatan Harapan opposition pact, Nasrudin Hassan asserted that the tie-up announced today would bridge the political differences dividing Malaysians, although he did not specify how.
“It is interesting that the PAS-Ikatan collaboration will form the third bloc in the local political landscape.
“It will play a major role in ending the people’s dependence on a certain party that has caused said party to be arrogant in their domination,” he said in a statement today.
Nasrudin did not specifically name any party although PAS and former ally DAP have called each other various names and exchanged numerous slurs over their difference of opinion on hudud.
He also added that attempts to cause a rift between PAS and Ikatan on the topic of hudud will not be successful as the latter party supports the Islamist party’s ambitions to implement the Shariah law that encompassed the Islamic penal code through democratic means.
Earlier today, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and his Ikatan counterpart Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir announced their new alliance in a news conference at the Islamist party’s headquarters here today.
PAS previously said the pact will compete with both the ruling Barisan Nasional and the Pakatan Harapan federal opposition pact.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed today said Umno should thank the PAS-Ikatan bloc for splitting the opposition vote to the ruling party’s benefit.
