KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 — DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said tonight that PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s attacks on his party was because DAP refused to support him as the candidate for prime minister in the 13th general election.
Addressing allegations that DAP was anti-Malay and anti-Islam, the Iskandar Puteri MP said before the election in 2013, Hadi through the PAS leadership had approached him to broach the subject of a prime minister designate on the ground that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was not a suitable candidate.
“PAS leaders were quite cunning as not to suggest themselves that Hadi should be the Prime Ministerial candidate for Pakatan Rakyat, and diplomatically suggested that their proposal for a suitable Prime Ministerial candidate was veteran Umno politician Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.
“When DAP leaders dissented and held to our view that Anwar should continue to be the Prime Ministerial candidate for Pakatan Rakyat, and we made no suggestion that Hadi should instead be considered as the Prime Ministerial candidate, PAS leaders dropped the subject as they knew that the DAP would not support Hadi as the Prime Minister-designate and the proposal to replace Anwar as the Prime Ministerial candidate was not further pursued,” Lim said in a statement.
He said looking at Hadi’s record as PAS president, it was a “blessing in disguise” that the defunct opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat did not manage to oust then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Barisan Nasional with a slim majority.
“It would have been most likely that the country would be plunged into a constitutional crisis if Hadi had announce his ‘kingmaker’ role and swung the support of the PAS MPs to prop up Najib to continue as Prime Minister in those circumstances in the 13th General Election in 2013,” Lim said.
Lim said PAS had always been more supportive of Najib as prime minister despite the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal and that Hadi would have probably bargain for the deputy prime minister’s post after the 13th general election.
“It is because DAP refused to support Hadi as Prime Ministerial candidate that he is now telling lies about the DAP being anti-Malay and anti-Islam. Hadi has forgotten during the heyday of Pakatan Rakyat, he had been saying that it was haram to vote for Umno and that it was the duty of every PAS member and supporter to vote for the DAP.
“Political leaders in Malaysia should not be hypocrites or opportunists. In fact, all religions teach that hypocrisy and opportunism will lead to sin and wrongdoing, like supporting Najib despite his kleptocratic premiership – something that Hadi should publicly repent,” Lim said.
