Next 24 hours crucial for Pakatan’s future, says DAP

DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has reservations over the speed in which the Selangor MB crisis is being handled. - The Malaysian Insider pic, August 12, 2014.Developments in the Selangor menteri besar crisis in the next 24 hours are critical to the future of Pakatan Rakyat, said DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang, calling on leaders of the coalition to make prompt decisions.

He said PAS's top leadership meeting this Sunday to decide whether it would support embattled Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, could be upstaged by what happens in the next 24 hours.

"The meeting of the PAS national leadership on August 17 will have a critical bearing on the future of the six-year-old three-party coalition Pakatan Rakyat," he said in a statement today.

"However, PAS's August 17 meeting may be upstaged by what happens in the next 24 hours in the Selangor MB crisis, which may set the seal for the irretrievable break-up of PR."

He warned PR leaders that Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) strategists are working overtime to exploit the Selangor crisis in order to get the support of the 15 PAS assemblymen to form a unity government.

"Umno/Barisan Nasional strategists are working on the scenario of 12 Umno + 15 PAS + Khalid and a high-powered campaign to undermine the loyalty of DAP and PKR state assembly reps to betray the Selangor voters and their respective parties," the Gelang Patah MP added.

"This campaign gains strength with the open support in some quarters for an 'Umno-PAS unity government' although couched under another terminology like 'national consensus'."

Khalid was sacked by PKR last weekend for defying the party’s orders to step down as menteri besar and make way for Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is the party's president.

Despite this, following a two-hour meeting by Selangor's Royal Advisory Council at the Istana Alam Shah yesterday, the Sultan of Selangor consented to Khalid to continue as MB.

The Port Klang assemblyman said he had informed the sultan that he still commanded the majority of the support of the state's assemblymen.

With that, PKR now has 13 seats, PAS and DAP 15 each, while rival Umno holds 12.

Lim, who is DAP adviser, said this was the reason why Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin – who is also Umno Deputy President – had swiftly declared that the 12 BN reps would support Khalid, who has lost the mandate of PKR and DAP reps.

"The break-up of PR will cause consternation and even despair among Malaysians over the betrayal of their high hopes that change has finally come to Malaysia but it will be welcomed as a boon and relief by Umno/BN leaders to spare them from political rejection and repudiation in the country," he said.

"PR leaders must act promptly and decisively and not be blind-sided by the pace of developments in the Selangor MB crisis when time is of the essence, allowing what could happen in the next 24 hours to upstage not only the PAS leadership meeting of August 17 but determine the survival of Pakatan Rakyat."

Earlier today, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng urged PAS to state clearly whether it would endorse PR's move to appoint Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the next MB, adding that the Islamist party must make its position known earlier, as Umno had already declared unconditional support for Khalid.

In a reply, PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali said the party would stick to August 17 to have its central leadership meeting to discuss the issue.

- TMI