KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 — Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang has claimed that PAS is experiencing a wave of ex-Umno members joining the Islamist party and believes more figures will join in the near future.
“I can’t (tell the number) but we already have them (ex Umno members) joining us.
“We have people like Ismail Muttalib. We’ve got Shahidan Kassim.
“There are even those who are bound by the Anti-Hopping Law but they are practically PAS members already,” the Marang MP was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini.
When asked if former senior Umno leader Tan Sri Annuar Musa’s application to join the Islamist party had been approved, Hadi said an announcement was forthcoming.
“We will announce it, not just Annuar Musa (joining PAS),” he said.
Besides that, he said that Umno had blundered in cooperating with DAP for the looming state elections.
“Even people in Umno do not agree with the move and frankly, we think that the coalition between Umno and Pakatan Harapan (PH) is more to save themselves, the court clusters.
“(They want) to get ministerial positions to save themselves. (It is) not for the sake of Umno’s mission which is in its constitution — upholding Islam and upholding race and nation,” he was quoted as saying during a press conference last night.
He said Umno had strayed from its constitution and would be unable to cooperate fully with DAP.
“We were on common ground... but the problem was that DAP was too outrageous.
“They asked us to not implement Islamic laws (hudud)... we only did it for the Muslims. The non-Muslims could do whatever they wanted.
“It is stated in the Constitution that Islamic laws cannot be enacted upon non-Muslims but they (DAP) intervened,” he was quoted as saying.
The two political parties had first collaborated in 1998 after Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was ousted as the then-deputy prime minister.
They formed the coalition Barisan Alternatif, which disbanded in 2004 after it failed to unseat Barisan Nasional in the 1999 and 2004 general elections.
Then PAS teamed up with DAP for a second time in 2008 as part of Pakatan Rakyat, but was effectively expelled in 2015 when the latter declared the coalition “dead” due to irreconcilable differences with the Islamists.
