File picture of PR leaders at their convention in Alor Star last year. PAS leaders now seem to have a change of heart about Anwar (centre in picture) as PM should the coalition win the general election.
Sources told The Malaysian Insider the questions arose at a closed-door meeting between PAS and PKR leaders on Sunday, after party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said last Saturday the Islamist party would not hesitate to leave the opposition pact should Islam and Malays lose out in coalition politics.
“PAS top leaders said it was ‘haram’ (illegal) for Anwar to ask for the prime minister post,” a PR source told The Malaysian Insider on condition of anonymity.
“Then a top PKR leader replied that Anwar had never asked for the prime minister post, and that it was the people instead who called for it. This has also been agreed to by PAS and other parties like DAP since the 1999 general election,” the source added.
Another PR source said the party’s top leaders have met with Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh to invite the former finance minister to be prime minister should PR wrest Putrajaya in the approaching national polls.
“But Pakatan must keep in mind that they must be consistent about who will be prime minister-elect. Otherwise the people will see us as flip-flops,” said the source, using the phrase that has been directed at their political foes, Barisan Nasional (BN).
It was unclear if the PAS leaders’ move is widely supported within the Islamist party. PAS leaders from spiritual chief Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat to its MPs have all along supported Anwar as PM.
Still, there appear to be some moves to assure the PAS grassroots that it is the eminent member of PR and one way to show this is by getting the PM’s post.
However, this grandstanding by PAS is unlikely to pay off with the DAP and PKR firmly in support of Anwar as prime minister.
The issue of who would be prime minister should PR form the next federal government arose two weeks ago when the PAS syura council reportedly rejected Anwar as prime minister and would instead appoint an outside candidate for the post.
PAS syura council chairman Nik Aziz, however, has rubbished the Utusan Malaysia report as an attempt to agitate relations between PAS and PR partners the DAP and PKR, according to national news agency Bernama.
DAP chairman Karpal Singh insisted last week that Anwar would be PM should PR win Election 2013.
The disagreement between PAS and PKR on who would be prime minister will likely affect PR, although the opposition pact is considered BN’s biggest challenger in history.
Umno urged PAS to leave PR in 2011 and suggested forming a unity government with the Islamist party.
PAS, however, has remained consistent in rejecting the idea of a unity government with Umno because the Islamist party does not want a repeat of the 1970s when it was booted from the BN coalition.
Umno has also repeatedly accused PAS of being a DAP tool.
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has said that PAS needed to leave PR, alleging that the coalition of PAS, PKR and the DAP was false and did not benefit the Malays.
PAS will contest 70 out of 222 parliamentary seats in Election 2013, which must be called by April, with the rest to be divided between the DAP and PKR.
BN lost its customary two-thirds majority and four states to the loose coalition of PAS, PKR and the DAP in Election 2008. But the ruling coalition regained Perak after several lawmakers left PR.
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