Loke's 'leave Pakatan' call to PAS sees support

Two DAP MPs have defended the party's national organising secretary Anthony Loke's call for PAS to leave Pakatan Rakyat if it refuses to adhere to the coalition's consensus and pursues hudud law.

 

Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari said even though he hoped the current Pakatan Rakyat coalition can be maintained, he "understands where Loke was coming from".

 

"All over the world, coalitions are not permanent. In Germany at the federal level, you have the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) and CDU (Christian Democratic Union) forming a coalition.

 

"But at the state level, there are no such coalition, it is completely different, the coalition could be formed with other parties such as the Green Party.

 

"So multi-party politics can be very fluid. I think we should not only concentrate on the BN model where it is basically a permanent situation," he told Malaysiakini when contacted.

 

The party's Raub MP Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz was more critical, backing Loke's call outright if PAS remains fixed on pushing through with hudud law in Kelantan through a Private Member's Bill in the next parliamentary sitting.

 

PAS is seeking to remove hurdles at the federal level to allow for the implementation of hudud law in the Kelantan which already exists in the form of enactments at the state level.

 

'Unhindered if outside Pakatan'

 

Ariff Sabri, who in a blog posting today stated his obligation to back hudud law as a Muslim while explaining his opposition to PAS' plans.

 

"If PAS feels so strongly about what it wants to do, and we have no doubts that PAS does feel so, then it must do the necessary action - pull itself out from Pakatan Rakyat.

 

"It can do that, retain its integrity and fight for what is believes in and that is what the party’sraison d'être is anyway. Then fight for what it believes for with all intensity," he said in the blog posting.

 

Loke had called on PAS to stand by Pakatan's consensus made in late 2010 essentially an agreement to disagree on hudud law or otherwise leave the opposition coalition.

 

However, Ariff Sabri hit a reconciliatory note, saying that PAS could still work within Pakatan Rakyat in election time. 

 

"We can still be part of Pakatan Rakyat and cooperate when elections comes. 

 

"The other members will still respect PAS as a partner in the coalition. I believe we have many things in common that can be the basis of cooperation," he said.