KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — PAS questioned Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today on why the PKR leader decided to contest in a predominantly non-Muslim constituency like Port Dickson.
Party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang in a statement posted on his Facebook page argued that the Port Dickson parliament seat — whose electorate comprises Malays at 43 per cent, Chinese (33 per cent), Indian (22 per cent), and other races (2 per cent) — does not reflect the country’s racial composition, therefore Anwar’s win was no real measure of his popularity among ethnic Malays.
“We saw that he picked the Port Dickson seat, a constituency dominated heavily by non-Muslims,” Hadi said.
“Why didn’t he pick a Muslim-majority seat? This (Port Dickson seat) is not balanced and does not reflect the country’s demographic which is Muslim-majority.”
Hadi added that only by contesting in a Muslim-dominated seat can Anwar measure his popularity.
“You should contest in a Muslim constituency to put yourself to the test,” the PAS president wrote.
PAS had previously hinted that Anwar was behind an alleged coup to topple Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Hadi, also MP for Marang, suggested today that Anwar cannot take over the post because he does not enjoy popular support. PAS leaders had said this was among the reasons why the PKR chief had supposedly wanted to unseat Dr Mahathir.
“We can see that in the last general election Pakatan Harapan won because they made Tun M the leader, who won even when his new party received the least number of seats,” Hadi said.
“This is something we cannot take lightly because they (PH) have tried to promote (Datuk Seri) Azmin Ali before but were unsuccessful. The same with Anwar Ibrahim but he failed too.”
Anwar led the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) when the coalition lost to Barisan Nasional in the 13th general election. PR, the political opposition bloc that predated PH, comprised PKR, PAS and the DAP.
After he was jailed for a second sodomy charge shortly after the elections, PAS quit the coalition. PR, effectively disbanded by then, struggled to find Anwar’s replacement and looked to Azmin as the primary candidate, but observers said the move failed to convince voters.
It was only after Dr Mahathir left Umno, formed Bersatu and joined PH that the bloc began to enjoy popular support. Even then, it received less than 20 per cent of the Malay votes when it won the 14th general election.
PAS had recently declared its support for Dr Mahathir’s prime ministership, saying it backed the Bersatu chief to helm the government for the entire term, a move meant to show its disapproval of the transition plan to put Anwar into office.
Hadi reiterated the party’s stance today.
“In our opinion, a prime minister must be picked by the people, not by certain individuals,” the PAS chief wrote, referring to Dr Mahathir as the rightful prime minister because he led PH to victory.
“Therefore, the election results must be taken into consideration and the appointment of the prime minister must be based on that result.”
