We will not betray Pakatan, says Hadi

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang (right), who has been blamed for straining ties among Pakatan Rakyat parties, says the Islamist party must stick to its own principles and identity. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, September 18, 2014.

PAS will continue its alliance with Pakatan Rakyat even as it continues to clash with its allies over the Selangor menteri besar issue, said its president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, who has been blamed for straining ties among the coalition's parties.

At the same time, Hadi struck a note of independence in his speech, insisting that PAS would stick to its own principles and identity instead of blindly aping the agenda of other parties.

He stressed that PAS had never betrayed its friends and that the party wanted its partners in Pakatan to do the same.

Although Hadi did not specifically refer to his PR allies, it is understood that his message was aimed at PKR and DAP, which had been at odds with the Islamist party in the Selangor MB crisis and earlier, the party's plan to enforce hudud law in Kelantan.

"Political cooperation does not mean we assimilate into other parties or adopt other systems. Or that we use electoral victory as a benchmark for success to the point that we sacrifice our Islamic principles.

"Electoral victory must be used to implement Islamic principles," Hadi said in his policy speech at the opening of the party's 60th assembly today.

"It is unfortunate that our cooperation has caused some of us to be intoxicated with power and to fight among ourselves."

The Selangor MB crisis has divided PAS after two factions of senior leaders made separate stands on whether to replace Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and who to replace the former corporate figure with PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Hadi and the party's powerful Shura Council felt that Khalid should not have been expelled by PKR, while the party's elected central committee ruled that it will back PKR's decision. 

The two factions had also come out with contrasting decisions on who to nominate as the new menteri besar.

The rift has caused observers to speculate that the party's leadership crisis this time will cause PAS to break up.

Hadi also hit back at the party's critics who accused PAS of using its clashes with PR allies as an excuse to join Umno.

"PAS wants to make clear that claims that we will join Umno or cooperate with Umno in Barisan Nasional are baseless.

"We will continue with PR so long as our pact does not violate Islamic principles."

- TMI