PKR to PAS: Focus on winning existing seats

PKR sends a reminder to PAS and DAP by stating that Penang was won on PKR and Anwar Ibrahim wave.

GEORGE TOWN: PAS has been advised to focus on winning back the seats lost in 2008 general election instead of asking for more.

Sharing his “wisdom”, Penang PKR information chief Johari Kassim told PAS state leadership that it should pay more attention to building its “local support first”.

He said this was in view of PAS’ performance in the 2008 general election when it could not win more than one seat.

Johari was responding to Penang PAS deputy commissioner II Mujahid Yusof Rawa’s hopes of seeing his party contest in more than the two parliamentary and five state seats it contested in 2008, in the next general election.

“PAS should instead concentrate on winning its allotted seats. It should build up its local support first,” Johari told FMT here today.

PAS contested Tasek Gelugor and Kepala Batas parliamentary, and Penaga, Permatangan Berangan, Sungai Dua, Permatang Pasir and Bayan Lepas state seats in 2008 general election.

It lost all its seats except the one in Permatang Pasir. But this, too, was largely due to the constituency’s location which came under the parliamentary domain of PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim’s Permatang Pauh fortress.

DAP’s win due to Anwar

Local PAS leaders have tacitly acknowledged that the party owed its win to Anwar and PKR for its consecutive victories in Permatang Pasir since 1999, first by the late Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman (1999-2008) and now PAS state commissioner Salleh Man.

Salleh won a by-election on Aug 25, 2009, which was held following Hamdan’s death.

PKR has also, in the past, given its Tasek Gelugor seat to PAS. PAS contested the seat in the 2004 and 2008 polls. The arrangement is expected to continue in the next election.

PKR contested four federal and 16 state seats, while DAP contested seven and 19 seats respectively.

PKR won all parliamentary seats and nine state seats, while DAP scored an unprecedented 100 percent electoral success in the 2008 elections.

This is the second time in as many weeks that Johari has ticked off Pakatan Rakyat partners for attempting to secure more seats, notably from PKR, for the next general election.

Last week, he slammed state DAP committee member Zulkifli Mohd Noor for suggesting that PKR give up six seats to the DAP to field Malay candidates.

“It was an unwise suggestion,” he said

He was quick to remind the DAP not to forget that its 2008 victory came about with the Malay support generated by Anwar and PKR.

Today, he urged Zulkifli to allocate more seats for Malays from his own party, rather than try to steal from others.

‘Emulate us’

Given to DAP’s much-acclaimed multi-racial politics, Johari foresees no obstacles for the party to allot seats for Malays.

He said that in the 1995 general election, DAP had fielded more than 10 candidates.

He pointed out that PKR had lived up to its multiracial image by allotting seats to candidates of various ethnic origins.

“Why can’t DAP emulate us?” asked Johari, the PKR’s whip in Seberang Perai Municipal Council.

Johari felt any public jostling for seats among PKR, PAS and DAP would not reflect well on Pakatan.

He said the coalition, which runs the state government, should show the public that its partners despised infighting, unlike Barisan Nasional.

By asking for more seats, he said the people would get a wrong public impression that Pakatan partners were jostling for more power.

“We must show that Pakatan is a solid, cohesive, united unit. We must show our solidarity that Pakatan is here to serve the people,” stressed Johari.