PAS leader won’t be chosen as PM, says Muhyiddin

The Umno deputy president cites mutual distrust between the partners in the opposition pact as the main reason.

KUALA LUMPUR: Saying that the concept of power sharing has never existed in the opposition pact, Muhyiddin Yassin tonight explained why the PAS leader will never be chosen as Malaysia’s prime minister.

The deputy prime minister said the main reason was that there was mutual distrust between PAS, the DAP and PKR.

“The PKR does not trust the DAP, likewise, the DAP does not trust the PKR, and both the DAP and PKR do not trust PAS,” he said when opening the delegates meeting of the three Umno wings simultaneously namely the Wanita, Youth and Puteri wings at the Dewan Merdeka, Putra World Trade Centre, here.

Muhyiddin, who is also the Umno deputy president, in his speech titled “Together Charting Victory”, said that the mandate given by the people to the opposition pact in the last general election to rule several states was a blessing that had exposed to the people that their pact actually could not cooperate and share power between one another.

He said that PAS and the DAP still held strongly to racial and religious sentiments, and that their respective political ideology and stand differed vastly.

Muhyiddin said although PAS and the DAP acted to portray as though there was political cooperation, both parties had always been at odds with each other until today because their ideologies clearly differed between one another.

This could be seen in three states under the opposition pact rule, where in Penang, the DAP was seen to be unwilling to share power with PAS, and where PAS which had one seat in the State Legislative Assembly was not appointed as a state exco member.

“The DAP, on the other hand, was more willing to hand over the portfolio on religion to PAS. Whereas as a party that claimed to champion the cause of Islam, the PAS assemblyman should have been given the trust by the DAP to look after Islamic affairs in Penang. It appears that the DAP does not trust PAS,” he said.

Muhyiddin said that in Kedah, the sole DAP assemblyman was not appointed to the state exco dominated by PAS, and when the Kedah PAS-led government passed a policy that favoured Islam, it was not the BN assemblyman who protested, but the DAP representative.

“This shows that the DAP is not only unwilling to share power with PAS, in fact it opposes the PAS Islamic policy,” he said.

Muhyiddin said that in Selangor, a PAS executive councillor and a DAP executive councillor were involved in a dispute on the enforcement of Islamic law in the state.

“To the DAP which is a secular party, hudud should not be implemented; in fact, the anti-vice law provided in the state’s Islamic law enactment should also not be implemented,” said the Umno deputy president.

He said that following the dispute, the PAS exco member was removed from the Selangor State Executive Council and party, and the Islamic religion portfolio which was formerly held by him, was taken over by the menteri besar from PKR.

-Bernama