KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang today dismissed talk of PAS teaming up with Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia (Ikatan) to form a new opposition pact, describing both parties as “zero”.

“Zero plus zero is zero,” Lim said curtly when notified of the alliance during a press conference at the DAP headquarters today, without elaborating further.

PAS secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan had last week announced the Islamist party’s plan to form a new opposition alliance with an unnamed multiracial party that would compete against the Pakatan Harapan opposition pact comprising DAP, PKR and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah).

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The previous opposition alliance called Pakatan Rakyat (PR) that had included PAS crumbled last year following disagreements between the conservative Islamist party and the DAP.

However, PAS is to date still friendly with PKR.

Following PAS’s announcement, Ikatan denied several times that it was one of the parties planning to join the new pact.

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Its president Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir said that although his party is close to PAS leaders, it has not received any invitation to form the new alliance.

Ikatan was launched last May after a two-year struggle to get itself registered.

During the launch, Abdul Kadir said that the party will remain neutral as its chief objective is to promote the ideals of the country’s founding fathers.

The party’s red-and-white logo bears the iconic image of the country’s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.